The Mariners crash truck into Red Sox, land safely in stream of victory
The Mariners offense continues to prove that life, uhhh... finds a way.
Yesterday’s game one against the Red Sox was somewhat of an Olympic level disaster for the Mariners. Yes, they put up seven runs, but allowed fourteen. Today was a chance for them to turn things around and set up a possible series win in tomorrow’s rubber match, and Seattle put up double digits to overcome Boston 10-6 to make that happen. It was another high scoring affair from both teams, but given the Monster and ballpark dimensions of it all, it was less a swimmingly easy affair, and more like the time when a truck carrying over 100,000 salmon crashed and overturned in Oregon–spilling many of those fish into a creek. Much like that fateful day with the overturned truck, this Mariners win was equal parts terrifying and inspiring.
The game opened with a bang when new friend Victor Robles attacked old friend James Paxton first pitch, a 91 mph fastball right down the middle that Robles lined into left for a single. And then the bang was a little more crash when next up Randy Arozarena struck out swinging chasing Big Maple’s knuckle curve and Cal Raleigh flew out to Tyler O’Neill to make two quick outs. Next to bat would be Justin Turner, making his Mariners debut, and, well, let’s just say I think he’ll fit in. With Turner batting Robles stole second base on the 2-0 throw, and after fouling off some pitches with a 2-2 count battling Paxton, Turner found grass in shallow right field. Robles came around to score and Turner tried turning a single into a double, and when Connor Wong caught the relay home for Boston, he didn’t worry about home and fired to second. Robles scored with no problem but Turner was cut down to end the inning, in an RBI TOOTBLAN. He’s really going to fit in around here. Fish, meet stream.
Mariners starter Luis Castillo also allowed traffic in the first, but he collected his two outs right away by getting Jarren Duran to strike out swinging and Wilyer Abreu to fly out to Randy in left. Then came the trouble when Masataka Yoshida reached with a broken bat slow roller (with a .090 xBA), and Castillo danced around the zone against Rafael Devers before he scooped a 2-0 changeup at the bottom of the zone into right field for a double (a more respectable .530 xBA and 108.6 off the bat), moving Yoshida to third. Unlike Paxton though, Castillo escaped the first without allowing the run, getting Tyler O’Neill to fly out to Robles in center and escape the inning.
Neither side allowed any runs in the second, but each pitcher allowed a double and faced four batters. In the bottom half, Castillo allowed a leadoff double to Dominic Smith. Off the Monster, .270 xBA and a home run in 3/30 ballparks. Then set down the next three batters in Wong, Hamilton and Rafaela with an infield groundout, called strikeout, and a flyout to Haniger in foul territory, respectively. In the top half, Paxton started off by getting Polanco to fall as his second victim to his knuckle curve before he allowed his double. Dylan Moore’s time to send one off the Monster, a sparkling .280 xBA that came 96.3 off the bat. And then the Mitches combined for a pop out and an easy fly to end the top half.
Paxton had a 1-2-3 top half of the third, setting down a trio of Leo Rivas at the bottom of the order and Robles and Arozarena coming around again from the top. First Leo Rivas managed to work to a 3-2 count, fouling a couple off but on the eighth pitch he was caught looking when Paxton perfectly dotted the upper inside corner with a fastball. Robles took four pitches to ground out, and Arozarena only went 0-2 before flying out on the third pitch, and it went to the bottom of the third with Paxton looking pretty comfortable despite the run allowed and only at 41 pitches.
For Luis Castillo in his half of the third, well, this is where the truck first hit the railing. It started out well enough when he got Duran to ground out. Then Wilyer Abreu battled his way to a 3-2 walk, and Yoshida punished a middle slider by lining it into right and moving Abreu to second. That set the table for Rafael Devers, and Castillo was able to get ahead in the count by stealing a strike one and getting Devers to swing through a fastball at the top of the zone, but when Devers saw that same fastball in the same location on the 0-2 pitch, he deposited over the Monster for a three run shot. Perhaps the real Monster is that hilariously Devers home run was a 96 mph hit that would have been a home run in 8/30 ballparks but only had a .090 xBA. Nevertheless it put the Red Sox up with an early 3-1 lead and a feeling of dread for anyone remembering how quickly things unraveled yesterday. La Piedra held strong though and after an O’Neill pop out to Rivas and a Smith flyout to Haniger he escaped the inning.
From there La Piedra settled in, allowing some traffic including accidentally plunking Ceddanne Rafaela on his right arm in the fourth, but didn’t allow any more runs and was able to finish out the bottom of the sixth at 100 pitches. He had four strikeouts and one walk on the night, and allowed six hits on the day and just the three earned runs from the Devers home run, notching the quality start.
On the Mariners side of offensive production, they finally decided if you can’t beat the Monster, be the Monster. If your truck crashes, find a stream. They didn’t quite splash down in the top of the fourth, but Polanco was able to cover some ground and narrow Boston down to a 3-2 lead when he took a middle fastball that Big Maple left Big Hanging over the Monster. 100.7 MPH off of the bat, with a sturdy .650 xBA and yes, a home run in 29/30 ballparks (everywhere but Coors Field). Also of note in the fourth was Paxton racking up his 1,000th career strikeout, fanning Justin Turner. Congrats, James!
The fifth is when the Mariners did the most damage, and didn’t waste any time. Haniger started the inning with an 109.1 MPH liner for a single. Leo Rivas came up next, and laid down a bunt. Now, if this was a normal ballgame, Leo Rivas likely would have reached first beating out the throw and moving Haniger to second. It was a good bunt! Instead, first baseman Smith botched the throw to first base sending it wide into foul territory, and Haniger was able to get to third. Next came Robles and after starting 2-0, he snapped a ground ball 98.3 mph at Devers at third base, and after a split second hesitation from the defensive catch, he tried and failed to reach Haniger diving back to third. Robles reached first safely, Rivas moved up to second, and the Mariners faced one of their oldest, most hated foes. The highway guardrail of their lives. Bases loaded, no outs. Up came Randy Arozarena.
Paxton started off the at bat with his knuckle curve, but it wasn’t fooling Randy this time and found too much zone, and he was able to turn it around hard for a fielder’s choice. The one run in Haniger scored, and Arozarena was out at first. Or was he? After Seattle challenged the call was overturned, and Randy was safe and once again the bases were loaded with no outs, and now the game was tied at three apiece. Officially it was scored as reaching on an error with an RBI. These new guys are really, really trying to prove they fit in with the Mariners already!
Paxton faced his last batter of the night, getting Cal Raleigh to strike out on a 2-2 fastball above the zone for the first out of the inning, and Boston opted to end his night at 72 pitches and a pond full of ducks he hatched, bringing in Zack Kelly.
First to face Kelly would be Justin Turner, and down 0-2 he hit it right to the first baseman, who bobbled and walked it over for the out at first, but the runners advanced including Rivas coming around to score.
Polanco kept the two out threat going by working a 3-2 walk, and Dylan Moore hit his second mash of the Monster of the night, clearing all of the bases for a double, and bringing the Mariners up to a 7-3 lead. 93.8 MPH off of the bat, a home run in 1/30 ballparks, and staggering, I mean truly massive, .060 xBA.
Mitch Garver worked a 3-2 walk against Kelly, ending his night and bringing in another old friend, Yohan Ramírez. Yohan who despite having some real promising stuff, was also known for sometimes struggling a bit with his control. The same former friend who then immediately hit Mitch Haniger to load the bases once again with two outs. This time Josh Rojas came in to pinch hit for Leo Rivas, and hit an easy grounder with Boston getting the out at second to end the inning.
Seattle wasn’t done though, and they continued the rest of their scoring in the top of the sixth. Robles found a gap in left field turning around a sweeper for a lead off single, followed by Randy Arozarena lining one into right for a single as well and moving Robles to second. Cal came up next and hit it 94.2 off the bat with an .510 xBA–right at first base, and they opted to toss out Arozarena at second, with Robles safe at third and Cal safe at first. Turner popped out for the second out, and up came Jorge Polanco. The first pitch from Ramírez was nowhere near the zone, but the second pitch was nothing but and Polanco took advantage, hitting a liner to the base of the Monster in left for a double, scoring Robles and moving Raleigh to third.
From there, things got wild for the Mariners last two runs. Fishes flopping all over the road, but somehow, finding stream. Dylan Moore was batting when Yohan through a wild pitch that allowed Cal to score and Polanco to move to third, only to then plunk DMo and let him take first for free as well.
Then with Mitch Garver batting, Dylan Moore decided to steal second on the 1-1 pitch, only for the throw to go wild and Moore advancing to third with Polanco scoring on the error. Garver struck out to end the inning, and the Mariners offensive efforts for the night, but they ended that half up 10-3.
The Mariners were, as Dave said in that clip, “running them out of their own building, here”.
Boston wouldn’t do damage again until the seventh. Tayler Saucedo came in the game to take over for Luis Castillo, but unfortunately tonight he was the fish that didn’t make it back to the stream. He started out well enough getting ahead of Ceddanne Rafaela 0-2, but ended up hitting him on the shoulder with the 1-2 pitch to put him on base. Jarren Duran then hit one an electric 60.9 MPH with a .090 xBA down the third base line for a hit, advancing Rafaela. Sauce bounced back against Refsnyder by getting him to strike out chasing a change up, and kept bouncing, getting Yoshida to ground into a force out, with Duran out at second and the runners at first and third safe. And then maybe a bit of a dead fish flop when he allowed Devers to next hit an RBI single up into center field, scoring Rafaela and cutting the Mariners lead to 10-4. Scott Servais swapped Sauce for Collin Snider, and Snider let his first batter Tyler O’Neill slip another one through, scoring Yoshida, bringing it to 10-5 and halving the Mariners lead. Next up was Dominic Smith, and his (.180 xBA, 93.7 MPH) double off the Monster scored Devers for the final Red Sox run of the night, and a final score of 10-6.
The Mariners sent out Yimi García to work the eighth, and he allowed only one hit to Rafaela and struck out David Hamilton in a scoreless appearance. Then came in Andrés Muñoz to finish the job in the ninth. Muñoz set down the Vermillion Laundry 1-2-3, getting Yoshida to strike out at a ball in the dirt and thrown out at first, Devers to go down on a called 2-2 strike on the inside edge of the zone, and getting Tyler O’Neill to ground out to third to end the game.
Yesterday and today, both teams came out swinging, with a fair share of legitimate hits and runs and also a little bit of banging up against a monstrosity of a wall, and with a little luck, having things land in the right place. Yesterday, it was Boston who came out on top, but today Seattle looked like the more confident, competent team. Of particular note, they won a game on a day that saw the trade deadline come and pass with significant contributions with players that were added just before it. Although the continued hot performances from new-to-this-year but been-around-a-little Robles and Polanco were just as vital, as well as longest tenured Mariner Dylan Moore. In the story about the salmon, what would almost certainly have been a tragedy, instead with a turn of luck became cause for some hope. Of the 100,000 fish in the truck that overturned, 70,000 found their way into a creek and were expected to survive. What’s more, they are even expected to be likely to return there in the future to spawn. The confidence they can do that is because they are resilient.
The Mariners have certainly been through their own struggles. Leading up to the deadline, it felt like their truck had crashed. Overturned. Today they overcame a tough loss from yesterday with a tougher win. With a Houston loss, they now sit narrowly atop the American League West. Now they have a chance to grind out another win in the rubber match tomorrow, to further step down the path to division contention. In their last five games, they’ve scored 39 runs. With reinforcements, renewed vigor, and maybe a little luck, maybe the Mariners can find their way back to the stream.