Mets blown out as Mariners finish series sweep

SEATTLE — The best thing to happen to the Mets after arriving in Seattle for the weekend was getting to leave.

Their series of unfortunate events ended Sunday night with the ugliest of them all: a 12-1 loss to the Mariners, who handed the Mets their first sweep since late May. They departed after three games, one run and zero wins.

And so the Mets finished their 10-day, 10-game, four-city road trip with a 4-6 record. They are a half-game behind Atlanta for the last National League wild-card spot as they head into their day off Monday.

“We understand we’re still in a good position for the goal that we have of being in the playoffs,” Francisco Lindor said. “We put ourselves in a position where we were in the playoff hunt. We got to keep that, stay there no matter what. Protect what we have here. Protect the vibes.”

As was the case Friday and Saturday, when Bryce Miller and Logan Gilbert shut the Mets down, Luis Castillo (10-11, 3.40 ERA) did so in the finale.

Jeff McNeil homered off Castillo in the sixth, his final inning. That ended the Mets’ scoreless streak at 24 innings dating to Thursday. Facing one of the worst offenses in the majors, the Mets were outscored 22-1 in the series.

“It’s tough to win games like that,” Lindor said.

Manager Carlos Mendoza said: “They were just better than us in pretty much every area.”

The Mets (61-57) missed a bunch of chances early. They had runners on first and second with one out in the second, third and fifth innings but didn’t come through. Second baseman Jorge Polanco and leftfielder Randy Arozarena made standout defensive plays to help the Mariners (63-56) hold the Mets down.

What had been a one-run game unraveled in a hurry in the fifth and sixth innings. Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh hit a pair of two-out home runs, a two-run shot off Luis Severino in the fifth and a three-run blast off Adam Ottavino in the sixth.

A key play: Arozarena’s weak grounder toward shortstop with two outs in the fifth. Lindor charged it, fielded it and lost it on the transfer to his bare hand, allowing Arozarena to reach base as the Mariners took a 2-0 lead.

Raleigh went deep — off the facing of the second deck in rightfield — on the next pitch from Severino.

Turning Arozarena’s grounder into an inning-ending out would have been a feat of defensive prowess perhaps even beyond Lindor’s ability, and Arozarena may well have been safe even if Lindor had gotten a throw off.

“I make that play nine out of 10 [times]. That was the one day that I didn’t do it,” Lindor said. “I had to close it for [Severino]. It could’ve been 1-0 right there instead of 4-0 coming out of that inning. That’s probably six to 10 more pitches that he pitched, so he maybe could’ve gone another inning.”

Ryne Stanek (one out) and Ottavino (two outs) combined to allow six runs in the sixth. Raleigh had the big blow again with his drive to right-center.

Severino (7-6) finished five innings with four runs allowed. His ERA has risen from 3.58 to 4.17 in his past three outings.

“They had a good lineup, but it was nothing crazy,” said Severino, who struck out eight. “If you make good pitches, you’re going to get people out. I feel like I made good pitches tonight.”

As for when the Mets most recently had been swept? That was against the Dodgers at Citi Field, the infamous series lowlighted by Jorge Lopez throwing his glove into the stands and the much-ballyhooed players-only team meeting. So the Mets have faced lower points than this.

“We still have a lot of meaningful games ahead of us,” Mendoza said. “We’ll be ready to go.”

Severino said: “We’ve been in this situation before. It’s nothing new.”

By Tim Healey

timothy.healey@newsday.com@timbhealey

Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.