Detroit — Tucker Barnhart was told the 7-0 loss to the Mariners on Thursday was the 18th time this season the Tigers have been shut out.
“It’s only that many?” he said. “It’s not higher? Feels like it’s higher.”
He wasn’t trying to be funny or sarcastic. The grind of this season, encapsulated in and exacerbated by getting swept out of Comerica Park by the Mariners this week, has exacted a toll.
“It’s been a year of frustration across the board,” Barnhart said. “There is no choice but to look forward. We’ve got games left and we all get paid to go out there and play and shut it down.
“But it’s hard to lose. It’s hard to lose at this level. It’s hard to lose this much and play like this. It’s pretty freakin’ frustrating, to be honest.”
BOX SCORE: Mariners 7, Tigers 0
The 18 shutouts are tied for the most by a Tigers team since 2000 (when Comerica Park opened). The 1975 team was blanked 20 times.
Mariners 6-foot-6 right-hander Logan Gilbert bullied Tigers hitters over six innings with fastballs. He gave up two singles and struck out nine throwing 55 four-seam fastballs that averaged 96 mph and hit 99.
“He’s got some of the best extension in all of baseball,” Barnhart said. “He made it tough, just threw a bunch of fastballs right by us.”
The Tigers swung at 32 of Gilbert’s heaters, missed 10 and took eight for called strikes. The seven they put in play had an average exit velocity of 83.6 mph.
As his outing went on, the Tigers’ at-bats got shorter. He retired 11 straight to end his day.
“It wasn’t less fight,” manager AJ Hinch said. “I think it’s just the challenge. You’ve got to get ready to hit and you get a little anxious as you are getting shoved by the fastball. And he’s got a fastball that he can tell you it’s coming and it’s still hard to hit.
“The discouraging part is when there is little to no offense, there’s just not a lot going on and the further you fall behind, the worse it gets.”
The Mariners took advantage of an uncharacteristic lack of command by Tigers starter Eduardo Rodriguez. He was knocked out of the game after allowing six runs, five earned, in four innings.
“I felt like everything was all over the place,” Rodriguez said. “A lot of 3-2 counts and they took advantage of it. I went from 0-2 to 3-2 a lot and that’s something that can’t happen, especially as a starter.”
To his point, Rodriguez was working in hitter’s counts way more than usual, going to three-ball counts eight times and needing 92 pitches to get through the four innings. He walked two and didn’t get much help from his defense.
An error by Jeimer Candelario led to an unearned run in the first inning and a reckless throwing error by shortstop Javier Báez was part of a three-run fourth inning.
In between, the Mariners put some good swings on him. Former Tiger Eugenio Suarez continued his assault with an RBI single in the first. He had six hits, including a home run, and four RBIs in the series.
Rodriguez was socked with back-to-back home runs in the third. Rookie Julio Rodriguez jumped a first-pitch slider and hit it 407 feet into the seats in left field. Ty France followed, hitting a changeup into the Tigers’ bullpen.
The fourth inning was a mess. Rodriguez walked J.P. Crawford after a nine-pitch fight. Sam Haggerty followed with a bloop single to center. Báez flagged the ball down, spun and threw blindly and wildly into the middle of the infield. That allowed both runners to advance.
Catcher Curt Casali, a former Tigers farmhand, then cashed both runners with a double to the gap in right-center.
“There is some credit that goes to them,” Hinch said. “They are a good team. They were a tough out, they had some two-out hits, they hit balls out of the park and they moved the ball and got some soft contact that led to success.
“We have to counter that. It’s a competition. It’s not just conceding and hat-tipping to the other side and getting on to the next game. There is a real competition going on out there and if that’s what they’re going to bring to our ballpark, you want to counterpunch.”
There was none. Four singles were all the offense the Tigers mustered against Gilbert and three relievers.
The eighth inning was covered by former Tiger Matthew Boyd. He threw his last pitch for the Tigers nearly a year ago (Sept. 4, 2021). This was his first big-league action after coming back from flexor tendon surgery.
Pitching for his hometown team, he got three ground-ball outs. Hard to tell at this point if that was a heartwarming return by an old friend or salt in the wound.
cmccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky