The Seattle Mariners lost 7-2 to the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night, falling under .500 at 47-48 on the season. The M's are also 1.5-games back of the Texas Rangers in the American League West, after Texas beat the Houston Astros.

One of the pivotal moments in Friday's loss came in the bottom of the fifth inning. Trailing 2-1, Luis Castillo got Cedric Mullins to pop up down the left field line. The ball was just barely foul and Arozarena got close to it, but pulled up before making a serious effort to catch it. He didn't dive for it, or for slide for it, he just let it drop.

On the next pitch, Mullins hit a home run, growing the lead. The Rays hit another homer in that inning to make a 4-1 lead and effectively put the game out of reach.

You can see the sequence below:

After the game, manager Dan Wilson cited Arozarena's balky hamstring as an issue. He was on the injured list with the issue from June 13-23. Arozarena did not use the injury as an excuse, simply saying that he didn't get to the ball.

Undoubtedly, the play "looks" bad, and it would have looked better if he slid or dove. Arozarena got a lot of venom from frustrated M's fans online, however, the conversation should be a bit more nuanced.

It's clear that Arozarena is not 100 percent and that he's playing through it. The team needs him to, given all the other injuries they've gone through, and that Arozarena has been the best offensive player on the roster for the first half of the season.

This team, at this time, simply can't afford to not have him in the lineup. So putting him on the injured list isn't truly something they can do.

While he won't use the injury as an excuse, I will. Arozarena had 18 stolen bases at the time of his injury, near the most in baseball. Since getting hurt? He has exactly one stolen base attempt. He's clearly protecting the hamstring as much as he can, and that was evident on that play.

The problem? Dominic Canzone, the other top offensive player of the first half, is also playing through a sore hamstring. Canzone's is clearly worse off than Arozarena's, prohibiting him from playing defense at all. Arozarena can't even recoil to the designated hitter spot because Canzone has to be there.

This team needs both of them, so the sacrifice is that an already-questionable outfielder in Arozarena is now playing at 75 percent or so. When you have that, you get things like Friday. You're trading off his offensive ability for the defensive limitations.

It's unfortunate, but it's reality.

If Arozarena's hamstring is truly something that he's fighting through, as I think it is, then he shouldn't be playing in next week's All-Star Game.

It's evident that the All-Star selection is something that means a lot to Arozarena, and that's great, but if he can't fully run after balls for the Mariners, he should be taking the full complement of time off and missing the game, like Julio Rodriguez did last year, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is this year.

If you think that the play on Friday "looked" bad, just wait until Arozarena flies from Tampa to Philadelphia, spends a few innings playing in an exhibition, and then flies back cross-country to Seattle, at a time when the Mariners season feels like its hanging in the balance.

That will look worse.

The latest edition of the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast is out, talking more about the Mariners at this point in the season, and we talk trade possibilities with ESPN MLB Insider Buster Olney.

You can listen to the episode here, or you can watch in the YouTube player below.

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