Encarnacion's Two HR's Not Enough, Mariners Top Tribe 5-4: Three Takeaways From the Loss

Sunday's rubber match between the Indians and Mariners appeared to be going the Indians way early on, but the Mariners took advantage of a work in progress

Sunday's rubber match between the Indians and Mariners appeared to be going the Indians way early on, but the Mariners took advantage of a work in progress Indians bullpen, pulling out a 5-4 win to drop the Tribe to 1-2 on the young season.

Dan Otero and Tyler Olsen both allowed runs to give the M's a 5-2 lead they would never lose, and despite two homers by Indians slugger Edwin Encarnacion, the Indians offense could not do enough to pull out the win.

Trevor Bauer got the start for the Indians, and due to some head scratching calls behind the plate had to throw a lot of pitches early, and in the end gave back a 2-0 lead and ended the day going five innings.

Here's three takeaways from Sunday's loss to the Mariners, as the team will stay west and travel to play the Angels for three starting on Monday night.

1. Leake Halts the Indians Offense

Mariners pitcher Mike Leake was effective despite allowing an early run in the second and another on a solo homer to Encarnacion in the 4th.

In the end, the M's starter allowed two runs and five hits. He has allowed three runs or fewer in all six starts since joining the Mariners late last season, and once again had good command and kept the Indians offense off guard most of the day.

Leake walked three and struck out four in getting the win, he threw 101 pitches on the afternoon, 61 of which were strikes.

2. A Tight Day for Bauer

There were some serious moments of frustration for Indians starter Trevor Bauer, and they were well deserved based on a couple tight calls that didn't go his way in the third inning with the Tribe up 1-0.

With two on and two out, Bauer threw what appeared to be more than reasonable pitches to M's right fielder Mitch Haniger, but home plate ump Jim Wolf didn't see it that way, and called two straight pitches balls that could have easily been strikes.

The Tribe pitcher rallied to get Kyle Seager swinging with the bases loaded on seven pitches, but by the end of the inning his pitch count was already at 69 pitches.

He had to throw seven pitches each to Robinson Cano and Haniger, and another seven to get Seager.

The long inning seemed to hurt Bauer from going longer, and sure enough his day was done after five, forcing the team to go to the pen which was a mess as we will talk about in a moment.

3. Pen Woes

The Indians bullpen just didn't have it on Sunday, as the M's twosome of Dee Gordon and Mitch Haniger each homered in a decisive seventh inning, putting Seattle up 5-2 and eventually the 5-4 win.

Everyone knew that without Bryan Shaw to eat up innings there was going to be growing pains, and that was evident on Sunday, as Dan Otero and Tyler Olsen went a combined two innings, allowing three runs on three hits, with the homers being the key blows of the day.

Expect this pen continue to be something that Terry Francona as well as pitching coach Carl Willis has to work with, and sadly Sunday the pen failures cost the team a game they scored first in and could have won.