Seattle Mariners Squander Chances in 5-4 Loss to Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday

SEATTLE — There were several chances for the Seattle Mariners. Several chances to put the Toronto Blue Jays away and break their five-series losing streak. Instead, that streak increased to six and the Mariners fell 5-4 in to the Blue Jays on Sunday in extra innings. Seattle dropped to 49-43 on the year, but still had a two-game lead in the American League West after the Houston Astros' 3-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins on the same day.

"This series — can't play it any closer and tighter than what it was," Seattle manager Scott Servais said in a postgame interview Sunday. "Unfortunately, we were on the bad side of a couple of those."

In three straight innings, the Mariners loaded the bases. Out of those 12 potential scores, Seattle brought home none. JP Crawford grounded out in the eighth, Jorge Polanco fouled out in the ninth and Cal Raleigh flew out in the 10th.

In the last few games, the trend has been for the Mariners' offense to start slow and pick it up late. Sunday was the complete opposite and the early-game heroics of Victor Robles and Mitch Garver were wasted.

Robles — filling in for an injured Julio Rodriguez — hit a solo home run to left field in the bottom of the third to put Seattle up 1-0. It was his first homer for the Mariners.

Garver tacked on three more runs with a home run to the left wall of his own in the bottom of the fifth.

Robles went 1-for-1 on Sunday. He scored twice, walked once and stole a base. His stats improved to a .350 average in 20 at-bats.

Garver has two home runs in his last four games and is batting .263 with five RBI in his last five games (July 3-7).

Toronto ended up taking advantage of Seattle's missed opportunities. A ghost of Astros past came to haunt the Mariners in the top of the seventh when former Houston outfielder George Springer hit a three-run shot bring Toronto even with Seattle at 4-4.

The Mariners had a chance to add another run after Luke Raley sent a ball to left field. Instead of staying in the yard, it bounced over the fence and was ruled a double. If that hit stayed in, Raleigh could have potentially scored. But it was not to be.

In the top of the 10th, Daulton Varsho brought automatic runner Vladimir Guerrero Jr. home with a double to give the Blue Jays the eventual final score of 5-4.

"Still feel good about where we're at," Servais said. "... We created a ton of traffic. Seems like the bases were loaded every inning there at the end. ... Our guys competed their tails off."

Seattle ended the day 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position. It left 15 runners stranded for the game.

The Mariners will have six more games before the All-Star break: two against the San Diego Padres and four against the Los Angeles Angels — all on the road.

Seattle has managed to keep a small advantage over Houston despite its six-series losing streak. The guaranteed way for the Mariners to keep ahead of the Astros until they meet on July 19 is to win most (ideally all) of those five road games.

The first will be at 6:40 p.m. PST on Tuesday (July 9) in San Diego, Calif.

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JULIO OUT FOR RUBBER MATCH: Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez was out of the starting lineup for Sunday's rubber match in the three-game series against the Blue Jays. Victor Robles was slated to bat ninth and play Rodriguez's normal spot in center field, according to the lineup. CLICK HERE

ROBLES MAKES HIS MARK: On Sunday, Victor Robles filled in for an injured Julio Rodriguez at center field. He batted ninth in the lineup and made the most of his opportunity. CLICK HERE

MARINERS' RALLY FALLS SHORT: The Seattle Mariners offense lacked any kind of potency for most of the game on Saturday before mounting a furious rally that came up just short in a 5-4 loss against the Toronto Blue Jays. CLICK HERE

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