Logan Evans strong in return from minors, but Mariners' bullpen falters

Tim Booth, The Seattle Times on Jul 4, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SEATTLE — With how much they’ve been asked to pitch lately, there was bound to be a time when the Seattle Mariners bullpen would eventually falter.

All those extra innings in Texas and a handful of shorter-than-expected starts from the starters seemed to catch up to the Mariners bullpen on Thursday night.

The bullpen that was mostly stellar over the past couple of weeks stumbled in the series finale against the Kansas City, as the Royals rallied for a 3-2 win over the Mariners before 38,030 at T-Mobile Park.

Kansas City scored three times in the seventh inning off M’s relievers, meaning Seattle had to settle for a split of the four-game series even with Logan Evans providing a strong start after being called up from the minors.

The M’s offense was limited to a pair of solo home runs. Jorge Polanco homered in the fourth inning off Seth Lugo and Dominic Canzone went deep leading off the ninth against Carlos Estévez.

Miles Mastrobuoni and J.P. Crawford also singled in the ninth and were standing at second and third with one out after Estévez unleashed a wild pitch.

But the two biggest bats in the M’s order couldn’t come through. Julio Rodríguez struck out looking — his fourth strikeout of the game — and Cal Raleigh grounded out to end it.

The M’s were 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position.

Casey Legumina, pitching for the first time since last Sunday in Texas, struggled with command and eventually created the problems in the seventh by walking Kyle Isbel and Jonathan India with one out. Legumina had not walked a batter in his previous eight appearances.

With the M’s looking to avoid using Matt Brash or Gabe Speier as each had pitched four of the past six games, Carlos Vargas was asked to escape the jam against Bobby Witt Jr., the AL MVP runner-up last season.

Witt struck out in his first two at-bats against Evans and hit a fly ball to right to end the fifth inning with runners at the corners. But he got the best of Vargas, lining an RBI single to left-center to score Isbel. He then stole second and scored on Vinnie Pasquantino’s two-run single through the drawn-in infield with a nifty slide around Raleigh after Canzone’s throw from right field beat Witt to the plate.

In the span of four batters, the Mariners perilous 1-0 lead was gone.

It’s been a heavy load Seattle’s bullpen has carried during this stretch of 17 games in 17 days. Since June 20, the M’s bullpen had thrown a combined 50 1/3 innings in the first 13 games of this nonstop span. That’s a lot of work and many stressful innings without a day off.

It also didn’t help the M’s offense did little to nothing against Kansas City starter Lugo. Lugo entered Thursday after a spectacular June where he went 2-0 with a 1.26 ERA and allowed just four earned runs in 28 2/3 innings pitched. MLB Statcast registered Lugo throwing eight different pitches against the Mariners, ranging from a fastball that touched nearly 95 mph, to a curveball that registered at 68.9 mph.

The M’s didn’t manage much against the righty who finished second in the AL Cy Young voting a year ago. Polanco’s solo home run was the only run scored off Lugo.

Lugo struck out Canzone with Luke Raley standing at second to end the sixth. Rodríguez struck out against reliever Lucas Erceg to end the seventh with Ben Williamson at first. Polanco doubled with two outs in the eighth only to see Raley fly out before the missed chance in the ninth.

Polanco’s three-hit game was his first since April 27 after he had four three-hit games in the first month of the season.

Making his first start since June 10 in Arizona, Evans was one pitch away from tossing six scoreless innings, but hung a sweeper that Salvador Perez clanged off the wall in left field for a two-out double in the sixth inning.

Evans retired the first nine in order then danced out of trouble in both the fourth and fifth innings. Evans scattered just three hits, struck out three and allowed three base runners via one walk and two hit batters. It was a smattering of everything, but ultimately the quality effort the M’s needed to match what Lugo was doing on the other side.