Mariners' risky approach running bases offers no reward against Jays

TORONTO -- The Mariners have made it clear, both in their public commentary and style of play, that they intend to run aggressively on the basepaths in 2025. But that strategy inherently comes with risk, and no game encapsulated that more so far this season than their 3-1 loss to the Blue Jays on Friday night at Rogers Centre.

Seattle sustained four outs on the basepaths in the series opener, each of which halted a potential rally and led to a scoreless inning in which they took place, while the contest was still in reach.

And making the situation more compounding was that Toronto’s Addison Barger orchestrated each of the first three big plays, yet Seattle still kept challenging the right fielder’s elite arm.

“We've just got to be smart about our aggression,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “We knew he had a good arm. And he put a couple really good throws, pretty accurate, on our guys. We tested him, and he made some good throws.”

Cal Raleigh was cut down attempting to stretch a one-out single into a double in the fourth inning that one-hopped the right-field wall. But Barger made a great read on the ball and corralled it with his body already in the throwing position, directionally aimed to the infield and fired a 93.6 mph bullet.

Chalk that one up to a lesson learned, except it seemingly wasn’t.

Two batters later, Randy Arozarena was caught in a rundown short of the plate when attempting to go first-to-home on another liner into the right-field corner, this one from Luke Raley.

Mariners third-base coach Kristopher Negrón initially threw up the stop sign on Arozarena, but upon seeing Barger’s throw heading to second base attempting to nab Raley -- this one 96 mph -- Negrón pivoted and sent Arozarena at the last minute. Arozarena then saw that shortstop Bo Bichette had the ball as he was halfway to the plate and turned back, but it was too late.

“That's a tough read there, and he just got tangled up there in the mess,” Wilson said. “That's a tough run, obviously. We had a couple of those kinds of things on the bases tonight.”

The final putout to Barger’s hat trick was in the fifth, when Rowdy Tellez was nabbed by a 98.8 mph strike attempting to tag up from second to third base on Ben Williamson's flyout. The assist registered a faster velocity than any pitch thrown from the mound on Friday. Tellez was nabbed convincingly for the second out, leaving just a runner on first for J.P. Crawford instead of having two men on for the contact specialist.

“I thought it was deep enough,” Tellez said. “I thought him moving to the line was going to give me a good chance to get there. And obviously, he put it on the money. ... But I just want to be aggressive. Sometimes it backfires, sometimes it doesn't. But who would have thought he could do it three times in a row? But you know that now.”

Barger wasn’t involved in the Mariners’ final out on the basepaths -- when Julio Rodríguez was ruled out attempting to steal second base in the eighth, and only after Toronto challenged. But the damage was mostly done by that point.

“Again, that’s being aggressive and that's what we're trying to do,” Wilson said.

Tellez homered in the second in his Toronto homecoming, after coming up in the Blue Jays organization -- and, to boot, off the player he was traded to the Brewers for back in 2021 (Bowden Francis).

But that represented Seattle’s lone run on a night where Bryan Woo grinded early but finished strong, surrendering three runs but clearing seven innings for his second straight start while retiring each of his final nine batters.

Barger became MLB’s first player with three outfield assists since Mark Canha, who was then with the Mets, on July 23, 2023. That put Barger on the doorstep of history, as only 12 players have recorded four outfield assists in a game, which still stands as the record, with seven of those coming in the Modern Era (since 1900). Overall, it hasn’t been done -- remarkably -- since Wally Berger for the Boston Braves on April 27, 1931.

The Mariners didn’t wind up on the unflattering side of the record books. But they still found themselves on the losing end of a game that for most of the night appeared to be within reach.