Logan Gilbert shines, but Mariners stumble, lose 0-2 to Red Sox

Devers this Devers that how about you read devers of debible

Logan Gilbert made his much-anticipated return to the Mariners tonight, but the Mariners offense did not make their much-anticipated return to production, failing to score any runs off Red Sox starter Lucas Giolito. It was a crummy way to welcome back their staff ace, and a disappointing lack of effort against a Boston team that’s experiencing some inner turmoil. Let’s go back in time and revisit:

Eight years ago next month, a prospect debuted for the Red Sox at T-Mobile Park, the next jewel in a homegrown crown that included Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi, Dustin Pedroia, and Xander Bogaerts. Rafael Devers hit ninth in the lineup on July 25, 2017, going hitless but walking twice (the Mariners walked the game off in the 13th on a Jean Segura infield single). The next night, he’d record his first career home run as Chris Sale and the Red Sox shut out the Mariners, 4-0. The next year, he’d help lead the Red Sox to another World Series championship, the most winning team in MLB since the 2001 Mariners.

Devers, like Betts and Bogaerts before him, now plays on the West Coast, as a member of the Giants after a shocking mid-June blockbuster trade. The Red Sox have a new young core that, with the departure of Devers, is entirely distinct from the 2018 championship team. Tonight, one member of that core came through immediately, as top-prospect-turned-ROY-contender Roman Anthony took a well-located Logan Gilbert fastball on the outer black 391 feet over the T-Mobile sign in center field. I don’t really make a habit of including opposing highlights, but this one is particularly impressive, especially considering it was Anthony’s first.

The baseball gods love their little jokes, don’t they? The Red Sox should time their top prospect debuts to coincide with their annual trip to T-Mobile Park, just to get that pesky first homer out of the way.

The Red Sox were able to get another run off Gilbert thanks to the now longest-tenured member of the offense, Jarren Duran, who hit a two-out triple into the right-field corner in the third inning. It was Gilbert’s one truly bad pitch of the night, a hanging slider that Duran was able to turn on; he had an opportunity to get out of it if he could have just taken care of Abraham Toro. Alas, Toro was able to sneak a hit past Cole Young, who made an excellent play to even get to the ball but wasn’t able to snag Toro at first, allowing Duran to fly home for a 2-0 lead.

That’s right where Gilbert kept them, though, over five innings of work. There was seemingly no palpable rust for LoGi Bear as he flummoxed the Red Sox hitters with fastballs and sliders, mixing in his splitter later on and racking up ugly swings en route to 10 strikeouts.

“Fastball I thought got some good swing and misses, even for not being 98-99 or anything like that,” said Gilbert, who recorded six whiffs on the pitch. The real weapon was Gilbert’s slider: of the 14 he threw, the Red Sox swung and missed at the pitch seven times.

It all added up to an MLB-best 21 whiffs, making Gilbert today’s Whiff King. Missed you, Big Bert.

Unfortunately, Red Sox starter Lucas Giolito was today’s Whiff Prince with 18, good for second-most in baseball (tied). Giolito matched Gilbert’s 10 strikeouts, but without taking any of his damage. The Mariners finally got something going in the third against Giolito, thanks again to the bottom of the order: Dominic Canzone continued what’s been a solid start to the season with the Mariners’ first hit of the day (J.P. Crawford had walked to open the game), and Ben Williamson and Cole Young followed with singles to load the bases for exactly who you want up for the Mariners right now, J.P. Crawford. Unfortunately, the Captain struck out, uncharacteristically expanding the zone up to chase after some high heat, and then Julio Rodríguez struck out swinging after a changeup, bringing up the other Mariner you want up right now, Cal Raleigh, who also struck out on a curveball, much to the delight of the large number of fans at the park wearing red. Despite the sweep of the Guardians, it seems the Mariners have not solved their sequencing problems. Lucas Giolito, it appears, has.

“That’s where Giolito really turned it on,” said Dan Wilson postgame about that inning. “I thought he made some good pitches in those sequences and was able to keep us from scoring in that situation. When you talk about veteran pitchers, they can go to a different spot, and it looked like he was able to turn it up a gear there.”

The Mariners’ sequencing problems became even more apparent in the later innings with Giolito finally out of the game. In the seventh, the Mariners showed signs of life with Jorge Polanco leading off with an infield single off lefty Justin Wilson; Polo then swiped second base, just his third bag of the season but an encouraging sign nonetheless. However, the Mariners then followed with three lousy at-bats (broken up by one walk from pinch-hitter Dylan Moore) to bring things to a quick end.

There was another opportunity in the eighth, even more frustrating than the seventh; Cole Young and J.P. Crawford led off with walks against Greg Weissert, which I’m sorry is as bad a Baseball Name as Brent Rooker is a good one, bringing up the top of the order again. Again, the top of the order failed to come through: Julio flew out to center field, and Cal Raleigh struck out for the second time in a clutch spot. Polanco, as the Mariners’ last hope, popped out, leading to big cheers from the third base side of T-Mobile Park, and groans from the few remaining Mariners fans.

There were no more opportunities in the ninth, as Aroldis Chapman came on and didn’t slam the door shut so much as he pushed the Mariners into a cellar and padlocked it shut.

There were two good things tonight: first, Zach Pop made his Mariners debut and showcased some cool stuff, like a 97 mph sinker that elicits hard-hit worm-burners, capably handled by the Mariners infield defense. Speaking of that infield defense:

Okay, three good things, because even though this game is frustrating in the context of how the Mariners have been playing lately, it truly was something special to witness Logan Gilbert back at the top of his game, and moving to hear him speak about what it meant to him postgame.

“I was really grateful just to play and be out there, do something I love and do it for a job. It was a lot more than just going out there for a middle of the season baseball game. It felt like a bigger deal than that for me. . .It felt like a long time since I was out there, so I was definitely ready to let everything go. But it just gives me a new appreciation, too, for the people that go through much longer [rehabs], Brash and Kowar and these guys. Six weeks felt like a year for me, it’s crazy how that works. So I know a lot of people have it tougher than that, so I have empathy for them, for sure.”

Welcome back, Logan. We are grateful to have you out there, too.