Mariners offense not enough to overcome early deficit, lose to Tigers 9-6
The Mariners scored six runs (that’s good!). Emerson Hancock gave up six runs (that’s bad!)
On a chilly Monday late March evening, with the park largely empty, you can hear almost every individual fan. Some more than others.
Those fans made their displeasure known after a nightmare first inning that saw Emerson Hancock give up six runs on seven hits, suffering a battering at the hands of the Detroit Tigers, who came into Seattle hungry for a win after being swept by the Dodgers. Hancock isn’t going to miss many bats, but in the spring he was able to manage the contact against him. The hardest-hit ball of the game was off Hancock in the first inning: a solo shot by Riley Greene at 110.8 mph. He also gave up a hard-hit double to lead off the game, as Justyn-Henry Malloy, recently recalled from Triple-A to fill in for the injured Gleyber Torres, pounced on a sinker too much on the plate. Hancock suffered some bad batted-ball luck against the Tigers—three singles with exit velocities under 70 mph—that extended the inning, but he also made location mistakes and walked a hitter with a runner on, things that won’t help when things already aren’t going well.
Hancock wasn’t able to clear the first inning, needing Tayler Saucedo to come sweep up after Javier Báez, who hit a robust .184 last season, crushed a two-run double to make it 6-0. The boos rained down heartily, and even more so when Saucedo walked the first batter he saw before finally getting the agonizing third out of the inning, to a loud round of deeply passive-aggressive applause.
“I didn’t do my part,” said Hancock postgame. “I put us in too big of a hole early on ,and I just didn’t give us a chance at all. I have to execute better. I have to find a way to get out of that first inning, so we can get some more length out of that game. Or maybe you get into a rhythm and settle in later. But I didn’t do my job.”
“This is one to flush, for sure,” said Dan Wilson.
There was a moment of joy in Mudville in the second inning, when Randy Arozarena turned all those hard-hit balls he’s had so far this season into a run, scalding a 97 mph fastball in the meaty part of the plate into the Tigers bullpen for his second homer of the young season.
Arozarena would have another hard-hit double later in the game at the exact same exit velocity (104.1); so far this season his average exit velocity is 99.1, which is objectively hilarious.
On in relief in the third, Collin Snider allowed a two-out walk to Malloy, bringing up one of the Tigers’ better hitters in Kerry Carpenter, who promptly smacked a double to put the Tigers up 7-1. Mop-up work is no fun, and pitching in the third inning will put a reliever used to the sixth inning or later out of rhythm, but two-out walks are always no-nos, and even more so on a night when the bullpen is being stretched to the max.
The Mariners got that run back in the bottom of the inning, scraping another run off Tigers starter Jackson Jobe, making his first MLB start, and pushing his pitch count up into the 50s. J.P. Crawford did his job, working a four-pitch leadoff walk off Jobe, who is prone to bouts of wildness. Victor Robles followed that up by sneaking a double down the line past Báez, putting runners on at second and third for Julio, who grounded out to get the Mariners another run. Arozarena extended the inning with yet another walk, but the threat died there.
The Tigers again pushed the lead in the fourth. Snider surrendered a one-out double to Colt Keith, prompting Dan Wilson to call for Carlos Vargas from the ‘pen. Vargas struck out the first batter he saw, getting Zach McKinstry swinging after a cutter, but Dillon Dingler got hold of a sinker on the plate and punched it into right for an RBI single—despite the best efforts of Victor Robles, who dove, trapped the ball and scrambled to his feet, quickly firing off a throw that almost nabbed the runner at home. “Vic-tor-Rob-les” chanted the sparse crowd in right field, audible throughout the park.
Another moment of joy came in the fourth, as Luke Raley got on the board with his first homer of the season, catching hold of a poorly-located changeup and dropping it into the seats in right field. Raley—as well as Randy, Julio, Victor, and Ryan Bliss—was part of a group taking early hitting practice, and Raley hit some absolute tanks (as did Randy), so it’s nice to see that transfer over to game time. (Also of note: Ryan Bliss also torched a ball, but hit it to the deep part of the park, out near the ‘pen. He actually tied Arozarena for the furthest hit ball of this game, but needs to consult with Randy about where he should be aiming these missiles. A little to the left, Ryan!)
In addition to the homer, Raley also had two walks, and for that, he earns today’s Sun Hat award. Raley earns bonus points for playing a solid first base, as well, cleaning up some rough throws from his infielders, even though Luke Raley belongs in the outfield, where he can run like a wild horse, and not in the cage of the infield.
The Mariners were able to get Jobe out of the game in the fifth, and Julio immediately made some hay against Tigers reliever Brenan Hanifee, who has...the wrong number of Ns in his name. I’m not sure how many he should have, but I know that’s not enough. Julio pounced on a sinker on the plate and drilled it deep into the right-field no-man’s-land, where McKinstry lost track of the ball, allowing Julio to get to third, giving him his first dubiously-scored triple of the season. Hanifee then got another two outs, punching out Raleigh looking on a nasty sinker on the inside corner and getting Arozarena swinging after a slider, but Polanco came through, lacing a sinker that missed to the middle of the plate into right field to make it 8-4.
Carlos Vargas did heroic work in relief, going 3.2 almost-scoreless innings, and the run that scored against him in the seventh wasn’t really his fault; with two outs and a runner on, Baez popped a little fly ball into shallow center that dropped between Julio, Bliss, and Robles (.210 xBA). Malloy drove the run in with an infield single that Mariners third basemen of the past might have had a play on, but Jorge Polanco did not.
With the score 9-4, a group of well-lubricated fans in the lower bowl started the wave, although with the number of fans in the building, it was more like The Sprinkle. But largely, the fans stayed, seeing the game through all three hours to the conclusion that was already writ two-thirds of the way into the first inning. They dance-cammed, they rally-shoed, they cheered for a very sweet ballpark proposal, and they were rewarded in the ninth with a majestic moonshot from Cal Raleigh that made the score slightly more respectable.
Even better, Julio was on for that home run, having hit a sharp single in the previous at-bat for a two-hit night for him. Eight hits might pale in comparison to the Tigers’ 18 hits (!), but for Mariners fans who have been starved for offense, six runs, six walks and eight hits is a welcome relief from the offensive desert of the A’s series. It’s especially encouraging to see so many balls hit hard or leaving the yard during Seattle’s infamous lousy (for baseball) Smarch weather. Still, with reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal going in the series finale, the Mariners now have a tough hill to climb, as between Skubal and tomorrow’s starter Casey Mize, there likely won’t be an offensive outburst like tonight in the rest of this series. Hopefully the same will hold true for the Tigers, who face an equally tough slate between Logan Gilbert and Luis Castillo.