Commentary: Mariners’ defensive miscues stand out in opening week full of conspicuous concerns

SEATTLE – In defense of the Mariners …

Just kidding. There is no defense right now. And by that I mean DE-fense, which punished the M’s for the second straight game and was absent for most of their opening week.

You wouldn’t know this by looking at the box score, which listed no errors for Seattle in its 8-0 loss to Cleveland on Wednesday. And this is certainly not an attempt to pardon starting pitcher George Kirby for the worst outing of his career.

A Mariners misanthrope had an all-you-can-hate buffet in front of him Wednesday between the lack of hitting, wayward pitching and nonexistent “D.”

But it was that feeble fielding that stood out most. There is no love for the glove in the Emerald City right now.

“You’ve got to make the plays defensively, and we didn’t do that today. That’s kind of the thing you scratch your head at today,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Just didn’t make the plays. They all didn’t record as errors, many were recorded as hits. But those are plays that our guys are used to making.”

A rundown …

• In the first inning, after Kirby had allowed two runs, second baseman Jorge Polanco mishandled a ground ball that allowed Andrés Giménez to score from third. The scorer initially ruled it an error, but surprisingly changed it to a single later in the game. It would not have affected Kirby’s ERA either way.

• Later in the first, Kirby threw a pitch in the dirt that K’d Bo Naylor, but it got past catcher Seby Zavala and allowed Naylor to reach first safely and Will Brennan to advance to third. It did not, however, lead to a run.

• In the second inning, Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio lined a single to right-center that hit the top of Polanco’s glove. It was catchable, and Steven Kwan singled on the next at-bat, moving Rocchio to third.

• On the next at-bat, Giménez roped a ground ball that went under first baseman Ty France’s glove, turning a potential double play into a double that scored Rocchio and Kwan and put Cleveland up 4-0.

• Two at-bats later, still in the second, Kwan scored on a sacrifice fly after Dylan Moore’s off-line throw to home plate from left field. This one’s nitpicky, as Moore isn’t a full-time outfielder and Kwan is oh-so-quick. Still, a deeper defensive team probably makes that play.

• In the top of the fourth, with the Guardians up 5-0, Giménez reached on a single after Polanco and shortstop J.P. Crawford collided on the right side of second base. Servais said this was a combination of bad luck and miscommunication, but it put two runners on with one out. Three at-bats later (double, sac fly, single), it was 8-0.

There was another wild pitch late in the game that Zavala could have blocked. But it didn’t matter at that point. The failure in each phase of the game was complete by that point.

One night earlier, Mariners right fielder Mitch Haniger misplayed a Brennan single that allowed Jose Ramírez to score from first and give the Guardians a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth. A two-run home run followed two pitches later. The next inning, Cleveland went up 4-0 after third baseman Josh Rojas’ throw hit Kwan after his bunt, allowing Rocchio to score.

As I repeated throughout my Mariners column Sunday, it’s ridiculously early in the season. And the Mariners are 3-4, not 1-6. Still, there are some conspicuous concerns for a team that has been outscored 31-17 and sits last in MLB in OPS. The defense may be chief among them.

“We could have helped George (Kirby) get through a couple more batters quicker,” Zavala said. “I don’t think George did terrible today. He made some pitches. We just didn’t really help him back there – behind the plate, on the field. It was kind of a mess. But it’s all right, we’ll get back in there.”

“Definitely not the cleanest game,” France said. “It is what it is. It’s out of character for us. I’m not really too worried about it, I don’t expect it to continue. But yeah, that’s a tough one.”

It’s hard to know if it’s truly out of character given the departures of 2023 Mariners such as third baseman Eugenio Suarez and outfielder Jarred Kelenic, both of whom excelled defensively. Just know that the Mariners coming into Wednesday’s game tied for ninth in the MLB for fewest errors per game means little, as this may have been the most defensively dismal error-free game the team has played this decade.

Maybe a six-day road trip in Milwaukee and Toronto fixes things for this team. Maybe it doesn’t.

What’s clear is there is much to be fixed. That sentence is error-free.