(Photo credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images)

Seattle Mariners manager Dan Wilson lamented the hole his club dug for itself this week while taking its first series loss since the trade deadline.

For manager Carlos Mendoza and the New York Mets, the hole is getting dangerously deep.

The Mariners will look to bounce back against the freefalling Mets on Friday night when the teams meet in New York for the opener of a three-game interleague series.

Mets left-hander Sean Manaea (1-1, 4.33 ERA) is slated to start against Mariners right-hander Luis Castillo (8-6, 3.19).

Both teams dropped the decisive game of a three-game series Thursday. The Mariners fell 5-3 to the Orioles in Baltimore while the host Mets squandered a pair of one-run leads in a 4-3 defeat to the Atlanta Braves.

The Mariners have lost two in a row, as their eight-game winning streak ended in a 4-3 defeat against the Orioles on Wednesday. It was Seattle's longest winning streak since August 2023.

The Mariners, who are 9-3 this month, have surged to the top American League wild-card standings and have inched within 1 1/2 games of the first-place Houston Astros in the AL West.

The loss on Thursday was the first this month in which Seattle trailed wire-to-wire. The Mariners, down 5-0, mounted a comeback attempt following a rain delay of more than two hours. Julio Rodriguez hit a two-run homer in the in the sixth inning, and Seattle sent the tying run to the plate in the seventh and the ninth.

'Trying to get back into this one and doing what we did, trying to tie this thing up and win this series was admirable,' Wilson said. 'But we just dug ourselves too big a hole.'

The Mets continued digging themselves into trouble on Thursday when they fell to a big-league-worst 2-10 this month. New York, which had the best record in the majors at 45-24 through June 12, leads the Cincinnati Reds by a half-game in the race for the third and last NL wild-card berth.

The Mets have led in seven of their losses this month, and they missed chances to author a walk-off win in a pair of extra-inning defeats to the visiting San Francisco Giants and Cleveland Guardians on Aug. 1 and Aug. 4, respectively. The Guardians carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning of a 4-1 win over New York on Aug. 6.

'We're going through a very tough time right now,' Mendoza said after Ryan Helsley gave up two runs to squander an eighth-inning lead on Thursday night. 'There are a lot of good players there, and we've just got to get through this. We can't be looking at the standings. We know where we're at.'

Castillo didn't factor into the decision in his most recent start on Aug. 8, when he allowed two runs over seven innings in the Mariners' 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. He is 2-1 with a 3.86 ERA in five career starts against the Mets.

Manaea also didn't factor into the decision on Sunday after giving up four runs over four-plus innings as the Mets fell to the Brewers 7-6 in Milwaukee. He is 8-8 with a 3.88 ERA in 18 games (17 starts) vs. the Mariners.

--Field Level Media