Seattle Mariners Attempted Rally Falls Short in 6-3 Loss to Kansas City Royals

SEATTLE The Seattle Mariners were unable to complete multiple attempted comebacks in a 6-3 loss against the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday at T-Mobile Park.

The Mariners fell to 44-41 with the loss and their deficit to the Houston Astros in the American League West increased to a season-high seven games.

Seattle still owns a 1.5-game lead for the final AL Wild Card spot over the Los Angeles Angels.

"Tough one tonight," Mariners manager Dan Wilson said in a postgame interview.

" ...

We tried to mount a comeback a couple of times.

...

(Created) traffic the last couple of innings, but just not able to get them in.

...

Tough night and one we're gonna move on from." The Royals were able to create early separation and didn't look back, despite several pushes from the M's.

Kansas City took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first courtesy of a Maikel Garcia RBI single.

The visitors bolstered their lead to 3-0 through the top of the second.

Nick Loftin hit an RBI double and scored on a force out hit by Kyle Isbel.

Seattle got on the board in the bottom of the second after Randy Arozarena hit a solo home run to left field.

It was his third homer in two games and cut Kansas City's lead down to 3-1.

It could have been a two-run homer, but Jorge Polanco was picked off at first during Arozarena's at-bat.

"I think our aggression we're gonna get caught a couple times on that," Wilson said.

"But I thought (Kansas City starter Michael Lorenzen), he had a pretty quick move on that and made a really nice throw to put it in the the spot to get (Polanco).

Sometimes that's gonna happen, that's baseball.

Tonight that was a tough one." Arozarena finished the game 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI.

He was the only M's hitter to have multiple hits Tuesday.

The Royals created more separation in the top of the fifth courtesy of veteran catcher Salvador Perez.

He hit a two-RBI double to give Kansas City a 5-1 advantage.

That hit also gave him sole possession of the sixth-most hits in franchise history.

The Mariners cut the deficit down to two runs again in their half of the fifth.

Ben Williamson hit an RBI double and J.P.

Crawford followed two at-bats later with an RBI single.

The Royals led 5-3 through five.

Seattle starter Emerson Hancock, who was already at 90 pitches through five innings, came out for the sixth.

The Mariners are in the middle of a stretch of 17 consecutive games without a day off, and the bullpen has been heavily taxed the last several days.

He induced a flyout and two groundouts and finished the game with 102 pitches.

He finished with one strikeout, walked three and allowed five earned runs on seven hits in six innings.

"You know the stretch that we're on," Hancock said in a postgame interview.

"And as a starter, you want to throw as many pitches as possible.

Early on it didn't look that way, but it's just 'alright, we got to settle in and we got to find a way to get through this.' ...

Able to get through six, but I'm not really happy with that." Seattle got two runners on base in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively, but couldn't bring a runner across.

The sixth ended after Donovan Solano hit into a 5-4-3 double play.

In the seventh, with two on and no out, Cole Young grounded into a 4-6-3 double play and Crawford grounded out the next at-bat.

The Mariners finished the game 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position and stranded four.

Kansas City tacked on the final run of the game in the top of the ninth.

Perez hit an RBI single for the eventual final of 6-3.

Perez's game-sealing single came against Seattle reliever Juan Burgos, who made his major league debut Tuesday.

He struck out two, walked one and allowed one earned run on two hits in two innings.

The Mariners will try to secure a series split against the Royals in Game 3 of the four-game series at 6:40 p.m.

PT on Wednesday.

Logan Gilbert will start for Seattle and Noah Cameron will start for Kansas City.

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