Cleveland’s lineup lifeless in 7-3 loss to Seattle

The Mariners roughed up Aaron Civale early and late and Cleveland’s lineup couldn’t muster much of a response, leading to a 7-3 drubbing at the hands of Seattle on Friday night. Seattle pummeled Cleveland at the plate, racking up eight extra-base hits on the night.

Civale’s first mistake came in the first inning when he served up a meatball on a 3-2 count to Kyle Seager, who deposited it into the bleachers in right center field to spot Seattle a 1-0 lead. In the third, Sam Haggerty reached on an infield single before Jarred Kelenic caught a splitter in the bottom of the zone, recording his first career big league hit with a two-run homer to make it 3-0.

Civale settled into a groove from there, retiring 12 of the next 13 batters he faced before giving up a leadoff double to Dylan Moore to start the seventh. Moore eventually came around to score, stealing third and then strolling home on a Luis Torrens sac fly. After giving up a two-out double to Haggerty, Civale was pulled in favor of Phil Maton. Maton effectively put the game to bed by not only allowing Haggerty to score on a Kelenic RBI double but by surrendering a two-run home run to Mitch Haniger shortly thereafter, giving the Mariners an insurmountable lead.

Pitching aside, the heart of Cleveland’s lineup did not come to play Friday night, so run support was in short supply. Amed Rosario, José Ramírez, Eddie Rosario, and Franmil Reyes were a combined 0-for-14. Josh Naylor and Jordan Luplow provided a spark at the bottom of the order, and the pair were responsible for Cleveland’s first run of the game. In the fifth inning, Naylor scored from second on a Luplow RBI single to cut the Mariners’ lead to 3-1. That would have been their only run of the game if not for Naylor’s two-run homer in the ninth inning.

Naylor and Luplow both finished the game with three hits a piece.

Chris Flexen was Seattle’s starting pitcher and Cleveland never really made him sweat. He didn’t record a single strikeout and only induced four swings-and-misses on the night, but used his cutter and changeup to draw weak contact and keep the ball on the ground. When Cleveland did put the barrel to the ball, it ended up finding a glove more often than not. Jake Bauers was robbed on a pair of line drives that registered exit velocities of 103.5 and 108 mph.

In other news, Trevor Stephan was spotted out in the wild. The right-hander made his first appearance since April 28 in the eighth inning, once the game was out of reach. He looked every bit like a reliever who hasn’t pitched in a game in more than two weeks. To his credit, Stephan kept the deficit at six runs in case his teammates decided to come alive in the ninth.

Cleveland managed to make life difficult enough for J.T. Chargois in the final frame to warrant an extra call to the bullpen, but their minor rally ultimately fell short.