Mariners Deliver a Masterclass in Bad Baseball Against Max Scherzer’s Blue Jays

The blame goes beyond the batter’s box.

Aug 28, 2026; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Seattle Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford (3) mishandles a ball hit by Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Kazuma Okamoto (not pictured) during the seventh inning at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Mariners’ offense was dreadful in Toronto. But it’s not like their pitching and defense don’t deserve to hear about it, too. It’s easy to tear apart a lineup that managed only four runs in three games. But this was simply just bad baseball across the board. Toronto scored 19 runs, and that number belongs in the conversation before we decide a few more hits will straighten everything out.

Sunday’s 7-0 loss left the Mariners at 64-73 and provided a particularly ugly example of how these problems feed each other.

Essentially a relic in Max Scherzer handled the hitting portion. He struck out 10 over seven innings, with Cal Raleigh’s fourth-inning double accounting for Seattle’s only hit all afternoon. Dan Wilson described hitters caught between the fastball and breaking ball, unable to get their timing right.

Mariners Need More Than an Offensive Turnaround After Toronto Sweep

The Mariners were thoroughly beaten at the plate. Logan Gilbert also gave Toronto an opening almost immediately. He walked Brett Bateman to begin the first inning, then surrendered Alejandro Kirk’s two-run homer on an 0-2 sweeper. Getting ahead of a hitter should be an advantage, but it just didn’t work out in Gilbert’s favor.

He finished with three runs allowed in five innings, which kept the M’s within reach. We should expect this lineup to win some games with that kind of start. Gilbert can also give it more length and avoid serving up a homer when he’s one strike from an out, but that’s neither here nor there.

The fifth inning is when we suspect some TV’s were turned off. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s grounder slipped under J.P. Crawford’s glove and Myles Straw scored from second. The one defense here, the ball was hit 108.5 mph, so calling it a harmless little roller would be unfair. It was officially scored an RBI double. But Crawford still had a play to make, and Seattle badly needed him to make it. That missed opportunity hurt with the Mariners already down 2-0, regardless of where the final score landed.

Gabe Speier allowed Kazuma Okamoto’s homer in the sixth, and the wheels fell off when the Jays added three more runs in the eighth. A game Seattle could have salvaged kept getting farther away.

The pitching-versus-hitting argument is getting exhausting. There’s no prize for being the least responsible department in a baseball team that is defeated this way. The Mariners need accountability in every department.

“We all need to be better,” Wilson said afterward.

Umm, yes. That assessment should carry into September and into the offseason. A couple of homers in Boston would be welcome, but they shouldn’t end the examination of what happened in Toronto.

Seattle desperately needs more offense. It also needs to give that offense something reasonable to overcome. The pitchers and fielders have work to do before the next rally arrives.