SEATTLE -- Mama said there’d be days like this. She just never said anything about two in a row.

“Deja vu all over again,” Mariners manager Scott Servais noted after his club got thumped, 14-1, by the Rangers on Sunday. Coming on the heels of a 15-1 drubbing the night before, it was a rapid regression for a Seattle team that had come into Saturday with the best run differential in the Majors at plus-41.

For much of the first month of this season, the Mariners overcame shortcomings in the pitching and defense departments by outscoring opponents. But that formula ran dry this weekend -- as did Seattle’s offense -- as Texas teed off in the two games.

Four errors and 17 hits allowed added up to a rough day for rookie right-hander Erik Swanson and five relievers as the Rangers took the series finale and left town feeling much better than one would expect from a four-game split.

The Mariners are still battling with Houston for the American League West lead at 18-13, but they are 5-11 over their past 16 games, including a 2-8 mark at T-Mobile Park. The back-to-back wins pulled Texas back over .500 at 14-13.

“You’ve got to make plays. You’ve got to catch the ball in this league,” Servais said after his club allowed 10 unearned runs in the two losses. “Once the ball gets rolling negatively, you’ve got to stop it and turn it around, and we just haven’t been able to do that the last couple days. We’ve got a day off tomorrow, and we’ll come back at it against the Cubs and go from there.”

The #Mariners commit 4 more errors today to add to our league leading 37 and it's not even May!

 

 

Designated hitter Daniel Vogelbach went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk, hiking his average to .310, but the Mariners managed little else against Rangers lefty Lance Lynn.

“Both my secondary pitches -- my slider and changeup -- I left too far up in the zone pretty much every time,” Swanson said. “I got away from what I’d been doing the last couple outings where I’d been having success, and I paid the price for it. It’s tough to work when you only have one pitch, and that’s your fastball.”

“There are plays in the big leagues that need to be made, and our guys know that,” Servais said. “It isn’t for lack of work and trying to get through it. We’ve had stretches where we’ve played very poor defense, and we’ve had stretches where we play six, seven games and are making all the plays and we roll. It’s just so vital for your pitching staff.

“It’s got that snowball effect right now. It’s something we’ve got to get right, otherwise we’ll be in other games like that. In this league, it’s 27 outs, no more. There’s a reason [infield coach] Perry Hill talks about it all the time. You give teams extra outs, and it really comes back to haunt you.”

Sometimes, baseball happens. #GoMariners

SEATTLE -- It’ll be months -- or maybe a year or two, realistically -- before the Mariners know if their “abbreviated start” plan with Yusei Kikuchi proves beneficial. But on Friday night against the Rangers, the first phase of the Kikuchi plan worked in the short term at least as Seattle topped Texas, 5-4, at T-Mobile Park.

@M_Hanny17 with the winner as @Mariners beat Rangers in 11 innings. #RefreshingPlays #WHEREiROOT

 Another RBI for Edwin Encarnacion as the @Mariners increase their lead.

 Sometimes, baseball happens.

 #TEXvsSEA

Welcome to Seattle, Justus.

 

when u hit the ball super duper hard

 

Mitch Haniger won it with a bases-loaded, walk-off fielder’s choice grounder in the bottom of the 11th as the Mariners improved to 18-11, the second-best mark in the Majors behind only the Rays. The Rangers fell to 12-13 with their fifth straight setback. Haniger’s one-out grounder to third off reliever Kyle Dowdy scored Omar Narvaez, who had singled and moved up on walks to Ryon Healy and Dee Gordon.

Kikuchi breezed through his planned one inning, needing just nine pitches to retire the side in order with a pair of strikeouts. Kikuchi lowered his ERA slightly, to 4.54 through seven starts, but more importantly in the Mariners’ eyes, he will now be in better position to pitch stronger and longer this initial season in the Majors and beyond.

The second part of Friday featured the debut of Seattle’s top prospect Justus Sheffield, called up from Triple-A Tacoma to piggyback off Kikuchi’s shortened start. The Mariners were hoping to get 4-5 innings from the 22-year-old lefty, but Sheffield struggled with his command, walking four in a three-inning, 75-pitch performance in which he allowed a pair of runs on a Nomar Mazara home run off the batter’s eye in center.

“Sheff was anxious to get out there and wanted to contribute,” manager Scott Servais said. “He’s got things to work on yet. Controlling the strike zone is a big thing for us and he’s got to get more consistent there. He’s got pitches, he’s got weapons, he’s got stuff. There’s no question about that. He’s got to refine it a little more and get more in a groove like we saw early in Spring Training.”

“I was just happy to get out there,” Sheffield said. “I had jitters early on, I will say. It’s been awhile since I pitched in a big league stadium. I just really wanted to keep the game close and pitch as deep as possible. At some points during the game, I was able to slow it down and make my pitches. It gets a lot easier when you get ahead and are able to attack guys. Once I was able to settle down a little, I felt a lot more comfortable.”

That look. @encadwin

 #TrueToTheBlue @encadwin

NOOOOOOOOOOO DOUBT ON THAT ONE.🦜 @encadwin, upper tank!

 

Encarnacion's monster 3-run jack

 

We're totally spacing—what's the name for those miniature burgers? You usually get like three of 'em? @yuseik18

 Wait, @t_beckham1 those aren't your spikes.

 

Encarnacion added a run-scoring single in the fifth in his four-RBI night and also made a huge defensive play when he got his glove up just in time to catch a line drive right at his face to get Swarzak out of a two-on, two-out jam and keep the game tied.

Encarnacion said the catch was a bigger play for him than the homer, as the ball was shielded by the baserunner, Elvis Andrus, until the last split second.

“The ball caught me,” said the veteran. “I saw it when he hit it, then I didn’t see it anymore. I just stuck up my glove and it worked.”

“We didn’t want to use him tonight, but it’s a nice weapon to have,” Servais said. “He has tremendous bounce-back ability. He threw 38 pitches last night and then is out there playing long toss today and is ready to go. Those guys are very, very valuable over the course of a Major League season. He’s having a great season for us. I appreciate his efforts.”

“Obviously we went through pretty much all our pitching staff tonight,” Servais said. “But we hung in. Our guys did a great job absorbing the innings, and we should be OK tomorrow.”

 @FlashGJr

 Roenis Elías on to pitch the 10th for the Mariners, as they look go to 3-0 in extras.