The Mariners finally shake off the shadows and win in Oakland behind complete team effort
The Seattle nine finally, and perhaps futilely, show that they can really step up.
Dark, ugly clouds have been hanging over the Seattle Mariners. None so heavy as the results of the last two games, both devastating walk-off losses to the Oakland Athletics in their soon-to-be-former home in the Oakland Coliseum, the second of which plunged the Mariners below the .500 line for the season. Still not technically eliminated from a post-season appearance, the storm clouds and steep cliff walls have been closing in, and it feels as though the Mariners must paddle against the current with a ferocity never seen, not from the 2024 squad at least, to find a rapid run path to the post-season. If they are even capable of such a thing would take a big showing to convince even a few, let alone many, and today may have been just large enough to convince those first few as Seattle overcame the Athletics in game three with a one sided score of 16-3.
It wasn’t until the middle stretches of the game that the score became lopsided, and in the bottom of the first inning, it looked as though it might become so only in the Athletics favor, and that George Kirby’s August woes may have bled into September. Lawrence Butler needed only to see the first pitch, a middle fastball he lined to left field, to continue his hot hitting ways and starting off the game with a double. Brent Rooker only needed one pitch as well, a middle-middle slider he grounded into left for a single, and Butler scored and the A’s had the early lead. A one run lead has felt like a ten run lead in the last week of M’s games, but Kirby refused to wear that weight today. George bounced back by getting JJ Bleday to strike out swinging, Shea Langeliers to go down looking on a 3-2 edge fastball, and with a little help from Cal Raleigh nabbing Rooker attempting to steal second.
Kirby settled in well after that, facing the minimum in the second, third, and fourth innings, and collecting two more strikeouts in each. The smooth sailing hit some choppy waters to start out the fifth inning, with a Seth Brown single and a Zack Gelof double putting runners on second and third with no outs, but Kirby combined a couple of fly outs and a backwards K of Max Schuemann to get out of it. Kirby worked his final inning in the sixth, and allowed his second earned run. A one out Brent Rooker single and a JJ Bleday double did the damage, and a Langeliers pop-out and Seth Brown fly-out stopped it there and brought an end to his night. With much sharper command than August allowed us, Kirby ended with a line of six innings, only two earned runs on six hits, no walks and nine strikeouts, collecting thirteen whiffs along the way.
As refreshing as it was to see a return-to-form Kirby performance on the mound, it has hardly been a season of disappointment in regards to Mariners pitching. That particular encroaching cumulus has been Seattle’s offensive production, or rather, their lack thereof. If they are going to fight their way into any sort of relevance to finish this season, they will need to do it with their bats. Today, the Seattle Mariners did just that. All of them.
No, really. Every single Seattle Mariners hitter, numbers one through nine in the lineup, collected at least one hit today. Collectively they only gathered four walks, but converted their sixteen hits into sixteen runs, and as a team only struck out six times.
The scoring started in the second, where the Mariners would take a lead they would not give up. Randy Arozarena reached base by wearing a 2-2 fastball that came in, and Victor Robles walked the more traditional way by working it 3-2 and taking a fastball below the zone. Garver battled his way to a 2-2 sinker up in the outside part of the zone he liked the look of, and sent it out to the wall in left-center for a double that scored both runners.
Seattle next scored against Oakland starter JP Sears in the fourth inning. Consistent source of joy that is Victor Robles reached with a two-out double, attacking the first pitch changeup and sending it into left field. Mitch Garver then, taking his Designated Hitter title tonight very seriously, hit a bouncing grounder up the middle-left for a single that scored Victor from second.
Luis Urías then doubled in Garver.
And Dylan Moore singled in Urías.
DMo was able to steal second, but not long before JP Crawford struck out on a foul tip to end the inning. As the Mariners came out of their half of the fourth, they had a 5-1 lead. The A’s would score three today, and so those five from the M’s would have been enough, and that alone would have been a huge sigh of relief for all in Mariners-dom. But the Mariners didn’t just need a win today. They needed to make a statement. That statement came in the top of the seventh inning.
Local product Janson Junk made his debut with Oakland tonight in the seventh inning, and he received a very Seattle welcome to the big league. Urías, who finished the night 3-for-4 with a walk, opened things up by working a 3-1 count and swatting a fastball too much in the top part of the zone 105.9 mph for a home run to left field.
DMo then doubled, Crawford singled, and Julio Rodríguez made the most of his one hit tonight, hitting an infield single chopping towards third and scoring Moore.
A wild pitch advanced the runners, and a Cal Raleigh walk loaded them up, before Randy Arozarena checked in with his double scoring JP and Julio and moving Cal to third.
Justin Turner worked a five pitch walk after swinging through the first pitch, and then Victor Robles attacked first pitch, singling on a line drive to center field, scoring Cal and keeping the bases loaded. With no outs, still. Who are these players and what have they done with the 2024 Mariners? And with that, Janson Junk’s night was finally done. Ross Stripling came in the game as relief, and Mitch Garver promptly went down swinging for the first out. Luis Urías then made his second appearance and second RBI of the inning by drawing a walk, and Dylan Moore rounded out the scoring with a sacrifice fly that scored Justin Turner and gave the Mariners a 12-2 lead.
JT Chargois came in for the bottom of the seventhj, and their was a brief threat of Oakland striking back. Zack Gelof worked a 3-2 walk to lead it off, and Tristan Gray quickly doubled him over to third. Max Schuemann grounded into a fielder’s choice that scored Gelof, and Oakland narrowed the gap to 12-3. Chargois induced a Jacob Wilson ground-out before Tayler Saucedo was called upon to get the final out of the inning, getting pinch hitter Tyler Nevin looking.
Surprisingly, the Mariners did not stop there with the scoring, as if to say “no, really, we are ACTUALLY going to win a baseball game, REALLY.” The top of the eighth saw one out consecutive singles from Raleigh, Arozarena, and Turner to load the bases, and load them for My New Favorite Mariner (and no I am not joking) Victor Robles. One pitch at the top of the zone later, and Victor Robles found the corner in left field for a double that scored two.
Mitch Garver scored another run with a fielder’s choice grounder, and Urías capped off his strong night with another RBI double.
That brought the game to its final score of 16-3, which accounts for the most runs the Mariners have ever scored at Oakland Coliseum. A bombastic statement, a powerful push, and one maybe, just maybe, not too late. Tomorrow, the Mariners will play their final game at the Coliseum, a game four that can see them save the series with a split. And, if they can keep playing like they did today, maybe they can save the season.