The back of his gray jersey, already darker in spots than the rest of his teammates due to his profuse sweating, was now one dark color as well as parts of most of the sleeves and the chest.
Pablo Lopez was laboring.
The Twins starter had already allowed a solo homer to Mitch Haniger to start the third inning and his pitch count was growing at a rapid rate.
A two-out walk to Cal Raleigh left him pacing around the mound in disgust. Even after Lopez struck out Mitch Garver on his 32nd pitch of the inning to finally get the third out, stranding a pair of runners, a successful outing seemed very much in doubt.
The Mariners had forced Lopez to throw 66 pitches in the first three innings, putting him on a pace to be done early — a goal of any team’s hitting approach.
Instead, the All-Star right-hander came back with 1-2-3 innings in the fourth (nine pitches), fifth (nine pitches) and sixth (10 pitches) to give his team an unexpected quality start, setting up the Twins bullpen for the later innings and never allowing the Mariners’ listless offense to generate any momentum or real scoring threats.
Seattle’s 5-1 loss to Minnesota offered yet more evidence of the two biggest concerns surrounding this team — lack of consistent production from an offense that swings and misses too much and minimal bullpen depth with middle relievers that struggle to miss bats and avoid base runners — as it tries to maintain a lead in the American League West and win its first division title since 2001.
The Mariners managed just six hits — none of them with runners in scoring position — and struck out 15 times. In the first two games of this series, they have 11 total hits with 28 strikeouts while going 0 for 16 with runners in scoring position.
“Not our best night at the plate, obviously,” manager Scott Servais said. “We continue to struggle there. But we have a chance to win the series tomorrow.”
Lopez, a one-time Mariners prospect, pitched six innings, allowing the one run on four hits with a walk and nine strikeouts to improve to 8-6 on the season.
“We needed a big hit,” Servais said. “They got it and we didn’t. When you’re playing a team so evenly matched, like we are against them, it comes down to that one big at-bat or that one big hit. They got it with two outs and we were unable to get it. Our guys are used to playing a lot of close games and I was hoping we could keep this one close until late.”
The Twins’ big hit — a three-run homer from Byron Buxton — came against the Mariners bullpen, turning a workable outing provided by starter Bryce Miller and a one-run deficit into a four-run chasm in the sixth inning.
Miller needed 87 pitches to grind through five innings against the Twins, using a variety of different deliveries and a heavy dose of split-finger fastballs against hitters that make meals of four-seam fastballs. He gave up two runs on five hits with a walk and six strikeouts. He allowed a base runner in every inning but the first.
“It wasn’t easy for him,” Servais said. “They put some pressure on him and gave him a chance.”
Miller threw just 25 four-seam fastballs and relied heavily on the split-finger (24), slider (11), cutter (six) and sweeper (one).
“I think that’s probably the lowest percentage of four-seamers I’ve thrown in a start,” Miller said. “I felt really good with all the off-speed. I was playing with a new grip on the slider today, and it worked really, really well. I think it was tagged as a splitter a couple of times, but it was really depthy and I had a couple of swing and misses on it. They were pitches I don’t ever really get a swing and miss on, so I felt really good with the splitter and the new slider.”
With the heart of the Twins order leading off the sixth inning, Servais called on right-hander Trent Thornton to try and keep the deficit to one run. Thornton has at times looked like a reliever poised to take on a larger role, including his clutch save to close out the previous road trip.
But he gave up back-to-back singles to start the inning and later left a fastball in the middle of the plate to Buxton, which was quickly turned into a tremendous blast into left-center.
“Thorny has been throwing the ball really well,” Servais said. “They scratched out a couple of soft hits and then Buxton got the big hit.”
Buxton also had an RBI double off Miller for a 2-1 lead in the third inning. In his last eight games, he has four doubles, four homers, 12 RBI, eight runs scored and a .500 on-base percentage. When healthy, he’s one of the elite players in baseball. But injuries have plagued him throughout his career.