Mariners go all hands on deck to defeat the Tigers, 15-7

Cal Raleigh doesn’t homer, Mariners somehow win anyway

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, right?

This game looked like it was heading in the wrong direction after the first inning, but by the time the final out was recorded, the Mariners found themselves with a season-high 15 runs, a season-high 19 hits, and an improbable—but delightful—series win over the Tigers and their two All-Stars who started this series.

But it didn’t start out so smoothly. George Kirby scuffled mightily with his command in the first inning, walking leadoff man Colt Keith before surrendering a double to Gleyber Torres, putting runners on at second and third with nobody out. A sacrifice fly from Riley Greene scored a run, but Kirby was able to cap the damage there despite loading the bases with a hit by pitch and a walk. However, the extra mistakes cost him extra pitches, and it looked like it would be a long day at the park for Kirby—or longer, after a rain delay had already delayed the start of the game by almost two hours.

But whatever adjustment Kirby made between innings seemed to work, as he came out in the second inning looking much more like his old self, mowing down the Tigers in the second and giving up a leadoff single in the third but then striking out the side and then working another quick, clean inning in the fourth, keeping his pitch count in check.

Meanwhile, Kirby’s offense built him a comfortable lead against Tigers starter Casey Mize. Mize was named a replacement All-Star yesterday but the Mariners made the All-Star look all flustered. They answered that first run of the Tigers back in the second inning, thanks to some aggressive baserunning by Randy Arozarena, who made it to third after a single and productive groundout by Luke Raley, and a clutch two-out hit from Dominic Canzone.

The Mariners got the go-ahead run right away in the third: Cole Young hit a ringing double (113.4 mph!) and J.P. Crawford drove him home with a nice little oppo single in a two-strike count. You’re an All-Star to us, J.P. The Mariners small-balled another run as Julio beat out a would-be double play ball, then stole second and took third on a bad throw by Tigers catcher Jake Rodgers, scoring on a Cal Raleigh sac fly.

Mize seemed to lose his focus after that, hitting Arozarena with a pitch and leaving a slider right on the plate for Jorge Polanco, who doubled, and then leaving another off-speed pitch—a splitter, this time—on the plate for Luke Raley to nuke into the crowd.

But those pesky Tigers are in first place for a reason. Kirby’s command slipped again in the fifth: after a one-out single to Colt Keith, he struck out Torres but then struggled in a long battle with Wenceel Pérez, who worked a walk, bringing up the dangerous Greene with two on. With Kirby’s pitch count in the low 90s, Greene was able to get a handle on a splitter that just sneaked over the wall for a three-run homer, making the game a much closer 7-4. Spencer Torkelson then kept the pressure on with a line drive single into left, but made the ill-advised decision to try to steal on Cal Raleigh, who threw out Tork and his 30th percentile sprint speed easily to stop the bleeding.

But Julio got one of those runs back right away in the top of the sixth, pouncing on a slider and demolishing a no-doubter into the cheap seats. July-io, is that you?

Side note: I quite like the quiet awe of Brad Adam’s “oh-my-goodness” call on this homer. Not everything has to be a shouting match.

The Mariners added another run in the seventh thanks to some two-out magic from Dominic Canzone, who hit a line drive single into right, moving Randy (who had hit an infield single that would have been a double if not for a great diving play by Zach McKinstry) to third; Ben Williamson then drove him home with a single up the middle, his second hit of the day. We love the big flies and dramatic home runs, but we love the small ball runs just as much.

The Tigers took that run back in the seventh off Trent Thornton, in for his second inning of work after Kirby, whose pitch count was punished by that long first inning, had to depart after the fifth inning. Once again, the Tigers were able to do two-out damage: Gleyber Torres doubled and scored on a fly ball single by Wenceel Pérez to bring the Tigers within four again.

But the newly-minted All-Star Randy Arozarena had an answer for that.

Randy is getting dangerously close to having his number of homers hit on the road pull even with his homer total at T-Mobile Park. That two-run shot scored Julio, who had laced a 113.7 mph double to left field—his hardest-hit ball of the day, even harder-hit than his home run. You simply love to see it:

Other things we love to see: every Mariner reaching base, and only Cal Raleigh going hitless, as the Mariners got it done up and down the lineup today. That was important, because Eduard Bazardo had the eighth and maybe the constant flip-flopping of his usage is getting to him, because he had about as poor a pitching performance as he’s had in months, surrendering a two-run home run, struggling to throw strikes, and giving up a lot of contact. He managed to strike out Rodgers but left Matt Brash with a total mess: bases loaded and just the one out. Thankfully, Brash had his good command today: he was able to finally retire Torres, who lined out to Young, and then got Pérez to ground out to strand the bases loaded.

But the Mariners offense machine wasn’t ready to grind to a halt just yet. In the top of the ninth, Raley and Canzone led off with back to back singles, and Ben Williamson capped a strong day for him with a great at-bat where he worked Kahnle for a seven-pitch at-bat, ending with an RBI single through the left side. Cole Young then walked to load the bases, bringing up J.P. Crawford, who tidied those bases right up with a three-run double to give the Mariners fifteen runs on the day, a new season-high.

Tayler Saucedo, making his first appearance since April 26, put the Tigers down in order to secure a stress-free victory.

This Mariners team has been maddeningly inconsistent, playing poorly against bad teams and playing well against good teams, following up star turns with clunkers, blowing leads or going completely cold at the plate; today they built on their strong game from last night, despite the rain delay, and turned in the highest run total for a Mariners team in consecutive games in over a decade. Encouragingly, they were able to do so without major contributions from Cal Raleigh, who has so often been the sole driver of offense on this team this season. A key to this: the bottom three hitters combined for eight hits, keeping the engine of the lineup chugging along and allowing the hitters at the top to do damage. Appropriately enough for a team called the Mariners, it has to be an all-hands-on-deck approach, and they more than made good on their name today.