4/17/23

Brewers 7, Mariners 3

(Seattle, WA) Riding a wave of momentum and a four game winning streak, the Seattle Mariners still had a tough task in front of them on Monday night as one of the hottest teams in baseball came to town in the Milwaukee Brewers. Not only that, it would be former NL Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes on the hill for Milwaukee to go along with their youth movement on offense. In a game it never felt like the Mariners were in, the win streak came to an end in a 7-3 loss to the Brewers.

After only needing five pitches to get through the top of the 1st, Chris Flexen ran into trouble in the top of the 2nd. Back-to-back singles by Rowdy Tellez and Brian Anderson got a Milwaukee threat going with runners on first and second with nobody out. Luke Voit ripped a line drive down the left field line into the corner. Voit’s first double of the season drove in Tellez to make it 1-0. After getting a pop out, Owen Miller smoked a grounder into center field to score Anderson to make it 2-0 Milwaukee. A weak groundout by Joey Wiemer extended that lead to 3-0 but with two outs but Christian Yelich coming to the plate. Yelich gave one a ride to left field but Jarred Kelenic would run it down to end the inning.

Seattle got one of those runs back immediately. Cal Raleigh got a changeup that caught way too much of the zone and made Corbin Burnes pay. Raleigh sent his second home run of the season into the bleachers in right field. The solo blast got the M’s on the board still trailing 3-1.

A baserunning mistake by Eugenio Suarez killed the only threat either team put together until the top of the 6th. Milwaukee put runners on first and second with one out and Brian Anderson stepped up and continued his strong day. The Brewer third baseman knocked a base hit to left field towards the line. A strong throw from Kelenic to the plate made it closer than anyone anticipated, but Willy Adames scored from second to make it 4-1 Brewers.

In the bottom of the 6th, Milwaukee would have to deal with some adversity. After walking J.P. Crawford, Corbin Burnes got Julio Rodriguez to fly out to center. That was when Burnes asked for the trainers to come out and they pulled him with a left pec injury. Peter Strzelecki got all the time he needed to warm up but it didn’t matter. Ty France took advantage of the unexpected pitching change with a deep shot to the gap in left center. Crawford flew around the bases and scored easily on France’s eighth double of the season to make it 4-2.

This time it would be Milwaukee striking right back. Brice Turang would pinch hit for Owen Miller to face new pitcher Penn Murfee. It would not be Murfee’s best day and it started from batter one. Turang sent his second home run of the season into right center field to make it 5-2 Brewers. Then the defense began to fall apart. Christian Yelich reached on a walk and then would steal second. Despite recording a strikeout, the Mariners couldn’t complete the strike him out, throw him out double play. The Raleigh throw hit Yelich’s arm and rolled into the outfield. The former MVP reached third with two outs on the error. Willy Adames made the M’s pay for that error with a knock to center to make it 6-2.

The ball continued to fly out of T-Mobile Park in the bottom of the 8th. Julio Rodriguez sent a line drive that cut through the chilly air out of the park for his third homer of the year making it 6-3 and keeping the Mariners within striking distance.

Defense let them down once again in the 9th. Back-to-back base runners reached with two outs. Luke Voit hit what looked like it would be an inning ending ground out but the ball went right between the legs of Crawford at short. It still looked like the M’s would end the inning when Kelenic threw a bullet to the plate to try to get Rowdy Tellez. Raleigh wouldn’t be able to hold onto the ball through the tag as Tellez scored to make it 7-3.

A Teoscar Hernandez base hit in the 9th would be it for the Mariners. Joel Payamps rolled through the Mariner order and got Kelenic to groundout to end the game and give Milwaukee the 7-3 win in the opener.

The loss snaps the Mariners (8-9) winning streak and drops them back to below .500. Seattle will look to get back to that mark in game two on Tuesday at 6:40pm with Logan Gilbert (1-1, 2.70 ERA) on the mound looking to build off his strongest start of the year. Colin Rea (0-0, 1.59 ERA) will pitch for Milwaukee in his second start of the young season.

Matt’s Takeaways

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t anticipate the Mariners winning this game. This was a tough matchup for Seattle the entire way. The defense continues to be a major cause for concern. That was a strength for the Mariners last season but in 2023 it has not been the case. The M’s have now allowed 11 unearned runs this season. They only allowed 46 total unearned runs all of last season. They will surpass that by the All-Star break at this rate. They need to buckle down and focus on how to fix those issues. Perry Hill is a wizard defensively and can turn it all around. With an off day at home on Thursday, I think the Mariners know that they need to spend that day with a glove on everyone’s hand to get back to being one of the better defensive teams in the league.

Notable Performances

Brewers

• Brian Anderson- 3-5, RBI, R
• Brice Turang- 1-2, HR, RBI, R
• Corbin Burnes (W, 2-1)- 5.1 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO

Mariners

• Cal Raleigh- 1-3, HR, RBI, R, BB
• Julio Rodriguez- 1-4, HR, RBI, R
• Chris Flexen (L, 0-3)- 6 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO

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