The defense cost the Mariners and Yusei Kikuchi a chance at a win and the bullpen made sure a the looming loss remained a defeat.
When the obituary for the 2019 Mariners season is written – well, it probably could’ve been written weeks ago – the lethargic and inconsistent defense and the unpredictable and unproductive bullpen, both expected problems, will be listed as the main causes of its extermination.
On a night when the up-and-down season of Yusei Kikuchi took an upward push in his final start before the All-Star break, the Mariners two main maladies disrupted his hopes of victory.