One of the biggest Achilles’ heels for this 2021 Mariners squad has been punishing the other team for making mistakes. We’ve seen them fail to capitalize with the bases loaded, fail to punish other teams for committing errors, and fail to knock pitchers who are struggling out of games with big innings. Today, in a game that was imperfectly pitched by both sides, the Mariners managed to make the Athletics’ mistakes loom larger than their own, and as a result, carry away a franchise-first four-game sweep of the A’s at the Coliseum.
With an exceptionally tight (and often inconsistent) zone called by home plate umpire Ryan Wills, the challenge today would be to see which pitcher could get damaged in the zone less, and which team could capitalize on more of those pitches forced into the zone.