Can’t win ‘em all: Mariners outplay Angels, lose anyway, 6-5

Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty ImagesThe Mariners haven’t lost a game to the Angels yet this year, a trend that probably wasn’t going to continue, especially in a four-game set. The Mariners have been playing better of late, but it’s hard to win every single game, especially when you’re soft-starting an oft-injured starter and depending on your bullpen to do the heavy lifting. Unfortunately, the Astros have been steaming along, and now sit just 1.5 games out of first after another win tonight, further burying the Rangers in the AL West. The Mariners don’t have any leeway to play with, because of how poorly they played over the last few weeks before this road trip, and because of that, sometimes when baseball baseballs—the Mariners scored four runs in regulation, which usually would have been enough with a different starter on the mound, and generally played a cleaner, better game than the Angels, but lost anyway because that’s how baseball be sometimes—they’ve now seen their lead in the AL West shrink down to a sliver.

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