TAMPA -- Could it possibly and painfully get any worse? After a 9-4 loss on Wednesday night, the Mariners are about to find out.

Seattle was swept handily by the Rays at George M. Steinbrenner Field, capped with a runaway defeat unlike any it has experienced this season -- at least in the context of how rapidly it was decided, the stakes of its season approaching a perilous point and that it came one day after a rare team meeting that was called with hopes to metaphorically close the floodgates on this brutal road trip.

But then, the floodgates opened wide from the first pitch on Wednesday.

Seattle went 1-2-3 on exactly three pitches in the first inning against Tampa Bay’s Adrian Houser, then George Kirby was ambushed like never before in his previous 107 career starts -- tagged for

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