The Seattle Mariners lost a devastating game on Sunday afternoon, dropping a 6-5 affair against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field.

With the loss, the Mariners are now 42-43, under .500 for the first time since late May. They are also out of first place in the American League West, and they trail the Texas Rangers by 0.5 games. 

The Mariners led 4-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning before surrendering five runs in the bottom of the eighth. They mounted a comeback in the ninth, but only scored one run and left the tying run on third base.

By now, I'll assume you know what actually happened and the decisions that were actually made, so we'll just look at it through this lens: What could manager Dan Wilson have done differently?

All of the issues that happened in the eighth stemmed from Hancock being unable to finish the sixth and Jose Ferrer being unavailable.

Hancock departed the game with two outs and a runner at first in the bottom of the sixth inning having thrown 98 pitches. It's the second-most pitches he's thrown all season, and because of a few shorter recent outings, he hadn't thrown more than 76 pitches since June 8. So maybe there was some trepidation about letting him go any higher than the 98 he was at.

That said, had Wilson let Hancock finish the sixth, and had he succeeded, he would have Gabe Speier and Eduard Bazardo available for the 7th and 8th innings.

If Wilson was hellbent on not letting Hancock go beyond the 98 pitches, then perhaps Rucker could have gotten the final out of the inning.

When Hancock departed the game, the No. 8 hitter was up. The Mariners were up by three. Could Rucker have gotten one out before giving up three runs? It's certainly possible.

If Wilson had gone there, then Speier and Bazardo would have been available for the 7th and 8th. Evidently, Wilson felt that the game hung in the balance in the 6th and 7th, and elected to have Bazardo get the final out of the sixth. Also, it's obvious that Bazardo had already been warming up in the sixth. Maybe Wilson didn't want him to have to sit back down and then get warm again later.

If the Mariners were going to go with a low-leverage reliever in the eighth, they could have turned to Davila, who has a 2.63 ERA in 13 games. He did just give up four runs in Wednesday's loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, so maybe that soured the staff on his chances of holding a 4-1 lead.

The Mariners led 4-2 in the 8th inning with one out and runners at second and third. Wilson elected to stay with Rucker for left-handed batter Steven Kwan, who walked.

At that point, Josh Simpson came in the game for Travis Bazzana (pop up) and Chase DeLauter (single). Because of the three-batter rule, right-hander Rhys Hoskins also got to face Simpson, and he doubled in the go-ahead and eventual winning runs.

Had Wilson pulled Rucker one batter earlier, then Simpson could have faced three lefties and been removed for the right-handed hitting Hoskins.

It's well-documented that Andres Munoz is most comfortable in a traditional ninth inning role and that he doesn't do a lot of up-down situations. That said, Wilson could have turned to Munoz with the bases loaded in the 8th with one out and the M's clinging to a 4-2 lead. Perhaps that would have worked, or perhaps not, but it was an option on the table.

As I've told you many times on the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast, basically all managerial decisions can be viewed through the lens of "did it work?" These did not work, so it's fair to question Wilson's decision-making.

Regardless of how you feel about it, Ferrer not being available clearly impacted things, and the Mariners are left picking up the pieces quickly.

They'll start a three-game series with the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night at T-Mobile Park.

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