Josh Naylor knows only one speed.
Which could turn out to be a problem for the Seattle Mariners’ postseason prospects.
Naylor had to leave after suffering a groin injury in the third inning of the Mariners’ streak-busting 3-2 loss to the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.
The interleague series between the West Division champions continues Saturday night with both teams now locked into their playoff seeding.
The Mariners (90-70) entered the series having already clinched the American League’s No. 2 seed and a first-round bye. They still had an outside shot at the top seed, though they trailed both Toronto and the New York Yankees by a game and didn’t hold the tiebreaker against either by virtue of losing the season series against both.
After Cal Raleigh singled to left to open the bottom of the third, Naylor grounded a one-out single to right, sending Raleigh to third. Naylor appeared to be grimacing while talking with first-base coach Eric Young Jr. and proceeded to steal second, becoming just the fifth first baseman in MLB history with a 20-homer, 30-steal season. When Eugenio Suarez flew out to deep center, Naylor tried to advance to third. He was tagged out just before Raleigh crossed the plate, negating what would’ve been the tying run.
Naylor, who was serving as the Mariners’ designated hitter, went straight to the clubhouse and was replaced by Mitch Garver.
“Just a little groin tightness,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “We were just wanting to be conservative with him. It’s precautionary so we were able to get him out.”
The Mariners had a seven-game winning streak snapped and lost for just the second time in 19 games. Their run of 11 straight home wins, which tied the franchise record set in 2011, also came to an end.
Enrique Hernandez hit a two-run homer for the Dodgers (91-69), who will be the No. 3 seed in the NL playoffs and will have to play in the wild-card round.
Rookie Roki Sasaki pitched his second straight scoreless inning of relief, striking out Raleigh — who leads MLB with 60 homers — on three straight split-fingered fastballs in the seventh inning.
“That’s the guy that we’ve seen in the past and were really excited about,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said before the game. “I think it’ll be important for him to get out there and continue to understand the warmup routine and just pitching in different situations as a reliever. So I think it’s mutually beneficial to get him back out there.”
Saturday’s scheduled starters are a pair of right-handers in the Dodgers’ Tyler Glasnow (4-3, 3.30 ERA) and the Mariners’ Logan Gilbert (6-6, 3.43).
Glasnow has won his past three starts. He beat visiting San Francisco 7-5 last Saturday, finishing with four scoreless innings after giving up four runs in the first. He’s 0-1 with a 4.76 ERA in one previous start against Seattle.
Gilbert has won his past two starts. He gave up one run on three hits over six innings Sunday in a 7-3 victory at Houston. Gilbert is 0-2 with a 10.24 ERA in two career starts against the Dodgers.
–Field Level Media
