Mariners remember how to play baseball, win 5-2

heading home with a win

If you’re anything like me, you saw the Florida road trip on this year’s schedule and felt a wave of dread. As we’ve established, the Mariners are a vibes based team, and need to play against divisional opponents and at home in order to go on winning streaks. It’s just how they are.

So flying 2,500 miles away to spend a week in hot and humid Florida is not conducive to their success. For instance, just remember the Florida road trip in 2022 and how the Mariners barely eked out a 2-4 record across those 6 games, winning one against Tampa and one against Miami. What I’m trying to say is that as bad as the vibes have been this week, and they have been bad, maybe this outcome is just playing to expectations. Perhaps, as the Mariners fly home today to take on Minnesota on Friday, they’ll get back to their winning ways. Perhaps we got a glimpse of that this morning.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but George Kirby threw a quality start. And this one was a lot smoother than his last. George got the no-hitter anxiety out of the way early when, on the third pitch, Yandy Díaz hit a little bloop hit for a leadoff single, extending his hitting streak to 19. The Kirbster buckled down, though, and induced outs from the next 6 Rays in a row.

But then, leading off the third, José Caballero - that menace - worked a 7 pitch at bat that ended in a double down the left field line. George got Alex Jackson to pop out next, bringing Yandy Díaz back to the plate.

Ok let’s talk about this. Here’s a better view.

So the shift is on for the right hander. Ty France and Ryan Bliss are both shaded over to the left, and Ty is about a mile from the bag. When this ball goes back up the middle, Ty thinks that George is gonna let the ball go past him and cover the bag. George thinks that Ty is gonna see him glove the ball and then cover the bag. The end result is that no one is at first.

In the half second after the ball is hit, George runs to cover first like normal. But then the ball comes straight to him and his mind switches gears into “flip the ball to Ty” mode. George gets a little confused when he sees the base open and hesitates for a moment. And that’s all the time Díaz needs in order to leg this one out.

Cabby, meanwhile, does Cabby things and is running the whole way from second. Cabby is one of the best baserunners in the game and he knows that he’s going to score the whole time. It’s a tough play and just goes to show how much of baseball is a mental game, and how much tiny, instantaneous mental errors can change the game.

Anyway, at the end of the day it was just one run, and Kirby was able to go the rest of his outing while facing the minimum. He did allow one more baserunner in the 5th. Caballero continued to torment George by hitting a bunt single, but George had the last laugh by striking out Alex Jackson, and partnering with Mitch Garver and Ryan Bliss to through Cabby out stealing.

In the very next inning, J.P. Crawford worked a one out walk, giving the Mariners just their third base runner of the game. The next batter, Josh Rojas, hit a ground ball that should have been a double play, but Rojas beat out the throw to first, keeping the inning alive. Julio followed up with a walk of his own, bringing up Cal Raleigh with two outs. Cal worked a great at bat, spitting on relief pitcher Shawn Armstrong’s cutters and sinkers to get himself in a 3-1 count. Cal’s discipline bought him a four-seamer over the plate and he didn’t miss it.

422 feet to deep right field and gave the Mariners a 3-1 lead. With the virtue of a lead, George came back out for the bottom of the sixth, but must have somewhere else he wanted to be because he and worked a 7 pitch 1-2-3 inning. That ended George’s day, giving him a 4 hit, one run, 7 strikeout, 0 walk quality start, his 10th of the year.

In the top of the 7th, Mitch Garver and Dom Canzone checked in with back to back singles. A sac bunt from Dylan Moore moved them both into scoring position. And that paid off when, after a Ryan Bliss strikeout, J.P. hit this little looper into left-center field.

J.P.’s second hit of the morning gave the Mariners a 5-1 run lead that they could coast on to the end.

Not easily, though as, in the bottom of the ninth, Andrés Muñoz got himself into trouble by walking the bases loaded. Andrés threw 18 pitches and only 6 of them were strikes. Almost all of them missed badly into the right-handed batter’s box, with his final pitch of the game actually hitting right hander Isaac Paredes.

Trent Thornton came in with the bases loaded and no outs to save the game. Richie Palacios gave him a ground ball, but J.P.’s relay to first missed getting Palacios out by less than a step. Josh Lowe came in to score to make it a 5-2 game and keep the tying run at the plate.

That tying run was represented by Amed Rosario who found himself in an agonizingly long battle with Thornton. Finally, on pitch number 7, Rosario beat an inside sinker into the dirt, and this time it was Ryan Bliss who made the throw over to Ty at first. It was a rocket and beat Rosario to the bag by two steps, ending the game and giving the Mariners their one win of the series. The M’s have not been swept in 2024.

With the accursed Florida trip over, the Mariners return home to face three hot teams in Minnesota, Baltimore, and Toronto. And with Houston making good on the Mariners’ struggles the past couple weeks, it looks like these are going to be some meaningful games. Hopefully they’ll play like they did in the 6th and 7th innings today.