DETROIT _ Could the outcome have been different in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader? It certainly seems possible that the Mariners' 4-3 loss to the Tigers could have been a 3-1 win or something different. It's certain that events of the final few innings would've taken on a new meaning or even played out differently.
But the Mariners' failures in the bottom of the sixth inning _ both defensively and strategically _ ended up being the difference in the game.
It was an inning where the Mariners didn't get the third out two different times for various reasons, and it hurt them and starter Marco Gonzales.
With two outs, Jacoby Jones hit a hard groundball to third base that Kyle Seager couldn't backhand with his glove and instead struck his knee, bouncing into foul territory. A limping Seager was slow to get to the ball and Jones sprinted for second.
With two outs, Grayson Greiner, who earlier in the game notched his first career RBI with a single to left, dumped a single into right field that scored Jones despite a good throw from Mitch Haniger and a close play at the plate with catcher Mike Zunino applying the tag, giving Detroit a 2-1 lead.
How close?
Well, replays seemed to show that Zunino actually tagged Jones on the foot before touched home, which ran counter to the emphatic safe call by umpire Scott Berry at home plate. But the Mariners, for some reason, didn't challenge the play to see if it was the third out of the inning.
"We had a bit of miscommunication over the phone on that play at the plate," said Mariners interim manager Manny Acta. "But we aren't going to blame the game on that one. It needed to be challenged after the fact when I saw it. But we had a miscommunication over the phone with the people who were involved in it. I'm not going to point fingers. We win and lose as a team."
Acta's last two sentences may be true and fair, but that's not going to actually appease an angry fanbase. What exactly happened, even without naming names?
"One (coach) calls in and the one in the video room answers and it was misunderstanding about if he was out or he was safe," Acta said. "Once that's communicated with me then I communicate with the umpire. That's the issue. It was a misunderstanding over the phone with the words 'he was out' or 'he wasn't out.'"
That hurt because the next batter _ Jose Iglesias _ who isn't much of a power hitter, yanked a two-run homer to left off of Gonzales to make it 4-1.
"It was a cutter," Gonzales said. "I was trying to go backdoor with it. It had been great all day and he got a jump on it and it drifted back over the middle of the plate."
Asked if he thought they should've challenged the play in the moment, a very irritated Gonzales wouldn't offer his opinion.
"That's not my call," he said. "It's not my call. I'm just going to try and roll with it and move on to the next one."
The Mariners answered with two runs in the top of the seventh, cutting the lead to one. But they would get no closer.
Seattle loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the ninth, but Dee Gordon grounded out to end the game.
The Mariners mustered little against Tigers starter Matthew Boyd in the first six innings. He held Seattle to just one run. Boyd hit Seager with a pitch and gave up a double to Ryon Healy to start the seventh. Reliever Buck Farmer would allow both runners to score after replacing Boyd, who improved to 2-3 on the season.
"We didn't get anything going offensively till the last third of the game and Boyd deserves a lot of credit," Acta said. "He kept us off balance. He mixed his pitches very well."
