Gilbert comes up just short, offense just comes up short, Mariners lose to Cardinals 2-0
Clearly the hitting coach’s fault
Baseball is a game of patience. You watch the cat and mouse game between the pitcher and hitter, disrupting each other’s timing, each other’s rhythm, with pitch after pitch something less than a result. You watch an entire game, waiting for one burst of action that determines the winner. You watch a whole season, looking for the one memorable moment that seems to define a whole season when you look back on it—Cal’s drought buster, Cade Marlowe’s grand slam. You follow a player’s career, knowing that one day they’ll become the version of themselves you always imagined they could be. It’s a game of patience.
As Logan Gilbert winds down his breakout year, he’s still looking for a capstone, the singular game that stands for everything he’s accomplished this year, from his All-Star nod to his new career high in strikeouts he reached tonight. He’s teased us a few times with something truly legendary. In Pittsburgh on August 16, he struck out his first three batters in order with a fastball that looked special at the time, though as he’s maintained that velocity, it looks like that’s just his fastball now. Facing Anaheim a couple weeks earlier, he breezily retired the first 12 batters in a row.
Tonight was a night like those. He hit 100 in the first inning so casually that the broadcasters didn’t even make note of it. With a six-pitch second inning and an eight-pitch third, it looked like this might finally be the night. He was just a little less sharp against his 11th batter, and Alec Burleson worked an eight-pitch walk. But the boys picked him up with a 6-4-3 double play, maintaining at least a no-hitter and a chance to go all nine. With one out in the fifth, Lars Nootbaar ended the dream with a solidly struck double. Still, Logan beared down and struck out the next two batters, ending on a perfectly placed 98-mph fastball on the inside corner to lock up catcher Pedro Pages. The CGSO was still on the table.
Atypically, Gilbert used his curveball as his third pitch tonight to complement the fastball and slider. It was surprising to me, but seemed equally surprising to the Cardinals. What in other circumstances might be a series of punished hanging curveballs instead froze the Cardinals’ hitters for seven called strikes, probably because it was so unexpected.
But with one out in the eighth, Logan hit Jordan Walker on the wrist and then gave up a no-doubter to Pages. Dan Wilson let Logan stay in the game to finish the inning, which still counts as a complete game, the second of Gilbert’s career. But that mistake prevented this from being a signature game for Logan. Especially when those two runs were so obviously enough against a Seattle lineup that, despite leaving six runners on base in the last three innings, had essentially nothing going for them tonight.
It’s a special player who can pitch a complete game, strike out 10, win his fifth Sun Hat Award of the year, showcase yet another great pitch, and still have it feel like it wasn’t enough to be a highlight. But that’s the kind of player Logan Gilbert is. He’s special. And, at least to me, he’s perfect. Mark my words, one day he’ll have the game to prove it. One day. Just be patient.