SEATTLE_Win the game and it was stealing a series win against a playoff caliber team and moving three games back in the wild card race. Lose and it's settling for another split and regretting more missed opportunities.
As has been the case since the June swoon, the Seattle Mariners settled for the latter, losing 3-2 to the Boston Red Sox in 11 innings on Thursday night at Safeco Field.
Travis Shaw led off the 11th with a single to left field off reliever Cody Martin. The Red Sox had Sandy Leon sacrifice bunt him over to second. Brock Holt delivered the go-ahead RBI, singling on a ground ball up the middle just off the glove of a diving Shawn O'Malley, which allowed Shaw to score with ease.
In the bottom of the inning, Seattle put the tying run on base, advancing pinch runner Luis Sardinas to third base. But he would never cross home as Seth Smith struck out against sidearmer Brad Ziegler to end the game.
With the loss, Seattle fell to 54-53 and continues to tread water in hopes of putting together a run of wins.
That the Mariners were even in the game was a bit of a surprise considering they were starting largely an unknown pitcher in the series finale.
The Mariners coaching staff didn't exactly have a book on Ariel Miranda and what he was all about coming into his first start for them. Heck, it wasn't even a pamphlet_more like notes on paper.
Acquired on Sunday in a trade with the Baltimore Orioles that sent fellow lefty Wade Miley to Baltimore, Miranda was making his first big league start and his second MLB appearance.
Manager Scott Servais admitted that he'd seen Miranda throw in some video and recalled the short relief outing he made against Seattle at Safeco Field with the Orioles when he gave up four runs on three hits in two innings of work.
But he gave the Mariners an unexpected quality start in his debut with his new team.
Miranda showed a fastball that touched 95 mph and sat around 92-94 mph with decent off-speed stuff. He certainly wasn't dominant, but showed some moxie pitching his way out of runners on base in every inning. He navigated through six innings against baseball's best offense, giving up two runs on eight hits with a walk and five strikeouts. It's an outing that the Mariners would gladly take considering the circumstances.
His first inning didn't inspire immediate confidence.
After getting leadoff hitter Mookie Betts to pop out foul, Xander Bogaerts and David Ortiz singled and Miranda walked Dustin Pedroia to load the bases. But he coolly struck out Jackie Bradley Jr. looking and got Aaron Hill to fly out right field to end the inning.
The crowd of 33,369 gave Miranda a nice ovation for working out of the jam.
But all that good feeling ended quickly in the second inning when Shaw led off with a solo homer to right field. Miranda fell behind 2-0 and grooved a 92 mph fastball that Shaw was ready to hammer. It was his 13th homer of the season.
Boston picked up its second run of the game in the fifth on back-to-back doubles from Bryce Bentz and Betts to make it 2-0. But Miranda left Betts on second, getting three straight fly ball outs to end the inning.
Down 2-0, the Mariners had yet to figure out how to push a run across against Drew Pomeranz, despite his meandering command and five walks in the first three innings, including three in the third.
Seattle broke through in the fifth inning. On Irish Heritage night at the park and inspired by the pregame bagpipes, O'Malley hit just the second homer of his career, leading off with a solo shot to left field to cut the lead to 2-1.
Guillermo Heredia followed with a bunt single. With two outs and Heredia on third, the Red Sox chose to walk Nelson Cruz to face Dae-Ho Lee. The move backfired. Lee dumped a single into right center, scoring Heredia and tying the game at 2-2.
Miranda came back and pitched a scoreless sixth despite giving up a leadoff single to Bradley. With one out, Shaw hit a rocket to first base that was snared by a "leaping" Lee, who then touched first for the inning ending double play.
The Mariners had a chance to win the game in regulation. In the bottom of the ninth, O'Malley singled with one out off of reliever Fernando Abad and Franklin Gutierrez drew a walk, bringing Robinson Cano to the plate.
Having hit a game-deciding three-run homer off of Abad on Tuesday night, Red Sox manager John Farrell took no chances. He went to closer Craig Kimbrel, who was able to get Cano to ground out to end the inning and send it into extra innings.
