When it’s sunny outside yet the Mariners insist on playing a long, drawn-out, unenjoyable blowout game of baseball, you just gotta turn to Jason Molina to take you home.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. I mean, it mostly is, but Cruz did continue his torrid streak with another home run.
When he's hot, he's hot.
— Mariners (@Mariners) April 30, 2017
https://t.co/jMWGFCOKa6 pic.twitter.com/8KYbbgfWCE
That’s seven home runs for Cruz and his second in two days. He also has a 10 game hitting streak going. I’ve said this many times in the last year and a half or so, but appreciate this man while you can. He is impossibly good at this point in his career considering his age.
Vogelbach’s defense continued to be a liability as he laughably misplayed a foul ball down the first base line in the second inning for what would have been the third out. But, to his credit, he worked a walk from Josh Tomlin after being down 0-2 in the fifth inning.
Also, Robinson Cano made a very difficult over the shoulder catch in the sun look extremely easy and then fired a perfect throw home to nearly catch the runner.
If I were a manager, which haha you couldn’t pay me enough to do that thankless job, I would challenge every close play at the plate I could. Why the hell not? It’s what the review system is there for. I have literally no clue if a review would have overturned that call because I have been wrong so, so many times on these, but a play that close seems like it’s worth a shot. Make the umps sweat a little.
Mariners tried to live a little in the sixth inning, stringing together some RBI singles to bring the score to 9-4, but Cleveland was having none of that as Carlos Ruiz lined out into a double play with the bases loaded to end the rally. So it goes.
Cleveland added on a few more garbage time runs to make it 12-4 and the Mariners lost a series they could have won or even swept had a few things gone their way yesterday and today. The silver lining here is that the awful month of April is now 100% over for this team. Let’s review. A brutal schedule including seven(!) games against the insanely good Astros. Two long road trips. Injuries to Segura, Haniger, and Felix, not to mention Drew Smyly starting the season on the DL. Kyle Seager had his annual April slump. It rained a ton in Seattle. Did I miss anything? Go away forever, April.
Onward to May and a series against the somehow .500 Angels. You’ve got a lot of work to do, Mariners. Get to it.