Every Walter Has His Day: Gilbert earns deserved win in narrow 3-2 escape over Yankees

Mariners offense does just enough to secure the win for Logan Gilbert

By now everyone knows the drill: get Logan Gilbert three runs of support, and he’ll do the rest (36-0 in such contests entering today). But over and over again, the Mariners offense has taken Big Walter for granted, lollygagging at the plate while Gilbert spins brilliant innings like a jumbo-sized Rumpelstiltskin. Today, the offense got him his three runs quickly, and Logan (with support from the bullpen) did the rest, holding the Yankees off the board despite having to battle his way through the thorny top of their lineup, and reaching a personal milestone to boot.

One of the most enjoyable parts of this historically good pitching staff has been watching them actively learn from each other. Yesterday, Bryce Miller talked about seeing what the top of the lineup was able to do against Bryan Woo in the series opener, and how that affected his gameplan. Today, postgame Gilbert talked about how he’d seen Miller use his splitter effectively against the Yankees last night—although, like Miller, it took him a little while to make the adjustment.

Starting off the game, Gilbert got into the same trouble Bryan Woo faced on Tuesday, allowing leadoff man Gleyber Torres to reach on a walk, but did his job to take care of Juan Soto, striking him out on a slider (he actually had Soto struck out three times during the at-bat-but I digress), before coaxing what should have been a double play ball off the bat of Aaron Judge, getting him hacking first-pitch swinging after a fastball. However, Josh Rojas did not do his job, mishandling the grounder, putting Gilbert in a sticky situation of two on with just one out. Gilbert got Jazz Chisholm Jr. to pop out first pitch swinging, and then worked himself out of the jam by striking out the recently-returned Giancarlo Stanton on a perfect splitter that also happened to be his 200th strikeout on the season:

Congratulations to Gilbert, who is now the ninth different pitcher in franchise history to reach a 200-strikeout season. He ended the day with nine strikeouts, and joins franchise legends Randy Johnson, Mark Langston, and Félix Hernández as the only pitchers in franchise history with nine straight games of six or more strikeouts.

The Mariners offense, after their poor showing last night, then staked Gilbert to a quick lead, scoring three runs early off Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt. Julio Rodríguez, taking over the leadoff spot from the injured Victor Robles, immediately recorded the Mariners’ first hit of the day, lining a two-strike sweeper up the middle. After Cal Raleigh popped out, Randy Arozarena worked a walk, and then Luke Raley did a Luke Raley thing and bunted on the first pitch he saw to load the bases. Justin Turner did his job, getting the ball into the air deep for a sac fly, but Jasson Domínguez—moving to left after making an error in center last night—misplayed yet another ball in the T-Mobile outfield, dropping what should have been an easy sac fly for a 1-0 Mariners lead and the bases still loaded with no outs. The Martian apparently does not find the atmosphere in T-Mobile’s outfield very forgiving. Jorge Polanco then followed with a true sac fly to make it 2-0, and J.P. Crawford kept the party going with a sharply-struck single for another run before Dylan Moore, pressed into service late in place of the injured Robles, worked a full-count walk to load the bases again. Unfortunately, Josh Rojas grounded out harmlessly to end the fun there—and indeed, end the Mariners’ scoring for the day. Still, it was a refreshing change of pace after yesterday’s slog.

Over the next five-and-change innings, Gilbert showed why he’s perfect with three runs of support or more, dipping in and out of trouble against the Yankees but largely holding them off the board. Gilbert worked around a leadoff double to Domínguez in the second, holding him there with a pair of weak-contact outs. Poor Anthony Volpe, who is the only hitter worse by OPS than Jorge Polanco over the past month, then jumped on a first pitch fastball for a single into right field, only to have Domínguez gunned down at the plate on a perfect seed from birthday boy Luke Raley—a play that loomed large given the Mariners’ inability to tack on any extra runs, and the difference between a fun win and another extra-innings grind. It’s Luke’s birthday, but he gave us all the present. (also: BFF to BFF relay!)

The Yankees tagged Gilbert for a pair of runs in the third, bringing them within a run. With two outs, Aaron Judge hit snuck a grounder through the left side. Trying to put away Jazz Chisholm Jr. as the final out of the inning, Gilbert left a cutter right in the middle of the plate Chilsholm destroyed over the right-center fence for a two-run home run, bringing the score to a perilous 3-2.

That set up a pattern for the rest of the game: the Mariners offense would scuffle against Yankees pitching, getting traffic on the bases but not bringing them around to score—to their credit, they struck out only nine times today, but are back to leaving double-digit runners on, with another 11 LOBsters in the pot today—and Gilbert would have to battle against the Yankees to try to keep them from tying it up. In the fourth. Gilbert fought with Domínguez for seven pitches, failing to put him away in a 1-2 count before leaving a four-seamer on the plate for a base hit. Anthony Rizzo followed that up by getting a handle on a splitter for a base hit of his own. However, Gilbert executed against the bottom of the lineup, getting Trevino to fly out and striking out Volpe on three pitches, and then getting a tough out in Torres, also on three pitches, with the splitter doing the majority of the damage.

The same thing happened in the fifth, except this time Gilbert was facing the top of the Yankees’ order. He started out promisingly, striking out Soto on a splitter so nasty it had Soto craning his neck at the jumbotron all the way back to the dugout. But then he walked Judge, who stole second. Then, my least favorite thing in the sport: a strikeout of Jazz Chisholm Jr. resulted in him on first base due to a wild pitch with Judge on third; Chisholm would then steal second to put runners on in scoring position for Stanton, who struck out waving helplessly after a splitter, and Domínguez, already 2-for-2 against Gilbert. This time, however, Domínguez grounded out harmlessly on 99 at the bottom of the zone, and once again, Gilbert escaped. He pitched to one more batter in the sixth, striking out Anthony Rizzo, because if Logan Gilbert doesn’t throw into the sixth inning he considers the day a failiure.

Troy Taylor came on to try to preserve the Mariners’ whisper-thin lead in the seventh, facing the top of the Yankees’ order—a big ask for the young Mr. Taylor. Taylor retired his first batter, Torres, on a groundout, but walked Soto on five pitches, bringing up what you don’t want to see: Aaron Judge with a runner on in a game where the Yankees are trailing by one. Judge jumped on the first pitch he saw, an 84 mph sweeper at the top of the zone, blasting it deep to center field, where Julio was able to track it down at the wall. Crisis averted. Taylor then struck out Chisholm on four pitches, getting him swinging over a sweeper and provoking a moderate celebration from the usually-stoic Taylor.

The Mariners had yet another chance to add on in the bottom of the seventh against lefty Tim Hill, as Arozarena worked a walk and they opted to intentionally walk Turner (?) to get to Polanco, who fouled out (but at the possible cost of Juan Soto’s knee, as he jammed into the right field wall making the catch) for the second out. That brought up J.P. Crawford for a left-on-left battle; Crawford struck out on three pitches. Womp womp.

But once again, the bullpen held the door. Trent Thornton put down the middle of the Yankees order 1-2-3 with two groundballs and ending on a strikeout of Anthony Rizzo, giving the Mariners offense another chance to try to give Andrés Muñoz more than just one run to work with, this time working against Undeserving All-Star Clay Holmes. Dylan Moore led off with a walk, and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt, but was thrown out trying to advance to third on a groundout to the left side from Julio, causing Angie Mentink’s head to explode next to me in the press box. Cal Raleigh then was robbed of a hit by a sparkling defensive play by Anthony Volpe, showing why they keep his noodle bat in the lineup, and Muñoz was asked to get three more outs with just one thin run of support.

Things didn’t start out well. Muñoz ran to a 3-0 count before bouncing back to strike out pinch hitter Ausin Wells, batting for Trevino, and then did the same to Oswaldo Cabrera, batting for Volpe. That left pesky pesky Gleyber Torres; Muñoz disposed of him on three pitches, going 100 for a called strike, 100 for a foul tip, and then getting him swinging over a slider. Clay Holmes could quite literally never:

Postgame, Logan Gilbert answered questions, including one about Shohei Ohtani’s historic achievement (“glad he’s in the NL”), but he didn’t get the question he wanted so he ended his press conference with a statement:

“Real quick: shout out to [Muñoz]. He was unbelievable today. And Luke throwing that runner out was huge. I feel like it was a complete game. Everybody showed up. The hitters putting up three early. All that stuff matters a ton. The bullpen holding it down too, just shout out to them.”

And aside from his performance on the mound—37-0 now when he gets just three lousy runs of support—this is who Logan Gilbert is: a humble, others-focused servant-leader. He’ll make space at a press conference that could have been about his own personal achievements to praise the team. He goads himself to go six innings every time out because he knows it sets the bullpen up and helps the team succeed not just for the game but for the entire series. He learns from the culture of excellent pitching around him, but also takes on a leadership role to set the expectations for that group; both Miller and Woo have talked about the importance of “logging their innings” and taking on their fair share, which is a huge reason why the Mariners lead MLB by a significant margin in innings thrown by starters. This team hasn’t always given Gilbert the support he earns with his pitching, but he doesn’t let that affect him. He’s a great pitcher, but more importantly, he’s a great teammate, and that’s a win whether it goes in the box score or not.