ANAHEIM, Calif.— It isn’t hard to track the reason for a deepening offensive funk that brought the Seattle Mariners into Tuesday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels with just one run in their last 21 innings.
The Mariners were hitless in 18 opportunities over their last three games with runners in scoring position, including zippo-for-4 in Monday’s 8-1 loss to the Angels. Not surprisingly, they’ve lost their three games.
“We haven’t been good offensively for quite a while,” manager Lloyd McClendon noted. “It’s a little bit of a concern. I’m not sure what’s going on. But we need a big hit, somewhere, to get us jump-started.”
The Mariners, overall, entered Tuesday with a .264 average with runners in scoring position, which ranks fifth among the 15 American League clubs.
Contrast that to last season’s .228 average, which ranked 14th.
Even so, the current slump is proving costly.
Prior to Saturday’s games, the Mariners held a one-half-game lead over Kansas City for the AL’s final wild-card berth and were just one-half game behind Oakland for the top wild-card spot.
They entered Tuesday’s game trailing Oakland by three games and trailing Kansas City by two games — with 13 games remaining.
“You’ve got to find a way,” third baseman Kyle Seager said, “regardless of who we’re facing or how good they are. Or whatever the case is. You’ve got to find a way to score runs.”
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