Recap: Mariners blow out Indians 9-3; Trevor Bauer allows six runs, including a grand slam

Seattle 9, Cleveland 3

Indians fall to 27-31

Box Score

Everything goes well until it doesn't in baseball. Trevor Bauer through two innings had pitched fairly well (allowing one double) and was one out from getting out of the third inning. Then he couldn't find the plate; he walked Austin Jackson, then Robinson Cano to load the bases. Then Kyle Seager stepped to the plate, he caught up to a mid-90s fastball, and suddenly the Mariners led 4-0. Since early May (when the rotation got into gear) the Indians have rarely trailed by anything more than a couple runs; usually their losses have come because the offense couldn't support a fine outing by the starter. But tonight the Mariners administered a thorough thrashing, eventually pushing their lead to 9-1, but essentially the game was over after Seager touched home plate in the third inning.

Trevor Bauer has had problems with walks before, though until tonight they had only hurt him through elevated pitch counts. In his first start of the season, for instance, he walked five in six otherwise perfect innings. But tonight four of the five batters he walked would come around to score, and because of that, he didn't get through the fourth inning. All told he allowed six runs in his 3.2 innings, his worst start since he allowed 6 runs in 4.1 innings against the Blue Jays in early May. In his last five starts Bauer had allowed 7 earned runs in 36.0 innings.

As has been the case of late, the offense didn't do much. They fared better this time against Taijuan Walker, but that isn't saying much, for instead of scoring 0 runs in 8 innings, they scored 1 run in 6 innings off the Seattle starter. They collected 8 hits and worked 2 walks against Walker, but failed make it a ballgame while that was still possible. The Indians scored their other two runs when the game had long since ceased to be competitive. The Indians outhit the Mariners 12-10, but unfortunately MLB does not determine wins and loss by the number of hits a team has.

Giovanny Urshela almost collected his first MLB hit in the ninth inning, but shortstop Brad Miller got to the grounder and threw in time to first. Giovanny did get his first MLB RBI on the play, so there's that.

With the loss, the Indians, who for a while was on the cusp of .500, now are four games below mediocrity, with most of the damage being done at home. They will to try to prevent a sweep by winning tomorrow afternoon's series finale, then head to Detroit for a crucial (or at least as crucial as a mid-June series can be) matchup with the Tigers.

Win Expectancy Chart

Source: FanGraphs

Roll Call

Game Thread

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