Table Setter: Mariners’ good offense can’t always bail out their bad defense

The Mariners’ first real road trip of the 2019 MLB season has begun, and while they nearly put together another exciting win, Seattle will need at least another day to win its eighth game of the season.

Could winning now impact Jerry Dipoto’s approach to Mariners’ rebuild?

The offense did what is has done in the opening weeks of the year, coming back from a five-run deficit to take an 8-6 lead at one point. But the issues of the Mariners’ defense and bullpen proved to be too much to overcome in a 10-8 loss to the White Sox in Chicago.

The series will continue on Saturday and Sunday, so here are a few things to keep in mind this weekend about the M’s.

This is a different Ryon Healy.

Ryon Healy didn’t get off on the right foot with the Mariners in 2018.

Acquired the previous offseason from the Oakland A’s, a hand injury not only disrupted Healy’s spring training but kept him from getting comfortable in the opening week of play, and he went just 2 for 22 in his first six games. To make matters worse, he then injured his ankle during a postgame workout and had to miss the next 19 days.

That rocky start led to an up-and-down first season in Seattle. Though Healy hit 25 home runs, he finished the year with a .235 average and .277 on-base percentage.

In the early going of the 2019 season, Healy looks like a different hitter. The power is still there – Healy hit his third homer of the season Friday against the White Sox, a game-tying, two-run shot in the fourth inning – but there is improved patience and pitch selection to go with it.

“Every hitter chases some, but Ryon had a pretty big issue with the chase last year that he has figured out how to get under wraps,” Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto told Danny, Dave and Moore on Thursday. “It’s a small sample size, but I can’t be more excited about one player’s growth in the batter’s box than I am about Ryon Healy’s at this point in the season.”

Dipoto explained how Healy took conversations from last season to heart and just happened to pick the perfect person to work on his approach with.

“We talked about this last year with Ryon, and to Ryon. It’s not that easy to change your approach and redefine who you are as a hitter, and I’m gonna give Ryon Healy a ton of credit,” Dipoto said. “He took it upon himself in the offseason to begin working with (Mariners hitting coach) Tim Laker, shortly before we actually hired Tim. … (Healy has) invested in trying to recreate his swing and has clearly recreated his approach.”

For more on Healy’s adjustments at the plate, check out this in-depth article Shannon Drayer wrote during spring training about his offseason work with Laker.

There’s room in the Vogelwagon for everybody.

Speaking of players with impressive approaches at the plate, the Mariners have to be happy with what they’ve seen from Daniel Vogelbach thus far.

With the 26-year-old first baseman out of minor league options this year, the M’s have little choice but to see what he can do at the Major League level. A sore hand for veteran slugger Edwin Encarnación made it a little easier, giving Vogelbach a pair of starts at designated hitter in the last two games. The results: 4 for 7 with a pair of homers, including the game-winner in the bottom of the eighth inning against the Angels on Tuesday.

Dipoto is understandably happy with Vogelbach, who was one of the more notable trade acquisitions of his first season as Seattle’s GM.

“He’s a fun player to be around. He’s got a great personality, he’s got huge power, and he’s got a built-in approach that really, all the things that we’ve preached for the last three-plus years, Vogey embodies those,” Dipoto said. “We’re really hopeful that he’s able to get over the Major League hump and we can give him the opportunity to do that.”

The defense: YIKES

The Mariners fell to 7-2 on the year with Friday’s loss to the White Sox, and while the bullpen (specifically Cory Gearrin) can take some of the blame for the defeat, the defense was the real culprit.

Shortstop Tim Beckham became the second Mariners infielder in a week to make three errors in a single inning, which you would think is kind of hard to do, and Seattle already has a ’16’ under the ‘E’ column for the season.

That’s a pretty big issue. Just ask Yusei Kikuchi about it.

Seattle’s new left-hander was stuck out on the mound for marathon first and second innings after Beckham’s errors, and he had to labor just to get to the third inning. Luckily for the Mariners, manager Scott Servais opted to stick with Kikuchi, who settled in to get through five innings on 93 pitches.

Had the Mariners played a little bit better defense, however, Kikuchi might have gotten through six frames, shortening the path to whoever Servais wanted to close the game to seal Kikuchi’s first MLB win. Instead, Gearrin took the ball in the seventh, and his control problems immediately reappeared. He walked the first two batters he faced, the next reached on a fielder’s choice, and then Gearrin plunked catcher Wellington Castillo to force in a run. Two more runs were charged to Gearrin when Zac Rosscup gave up a single to Yoan Moncada that proved to be the difference.

The Mariners were nearly bitten by their poor defense the previous weekend when Dylan Moore committed three errors in a row at third base, but they escaped with a 6-5 victory that night over the Red Sox. Friday proved, though, that if the defense doesn’t improve, they won’t always be so lucky.

Dipoto not shocked by Mariners’ start: ‘There’s a lot of talent on this team’

Follow @BrentStecker