Mariners complete sweep with 8-4 win over Detroit

Seattle’s sixth sweep of the year sends them into the All-Star break on a high note

Something odd about Motown is that, for as amazing as the records are, they tend to end on a flat note. The Four Tops Second Album, with all-timers like “I Can’t Help Myself” and “It’s the Same Old Song” closes with the forgettable “I’m Grateful.” Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, which has “Sir Duke” and “Isn’t She Lovely” ends with the meandering “Another Star.” More Hits by the Supremes, featuring “Stop! In the Name of Love” and “Back in My Arms Again”, leaves you with “I’m in Love Again.” So too did it go for the Motown baseball team today, with the Tigers giving up four runs in the top of the ninth to let a winnable game slip away, ending their best-in-MLB first half with a series sweep to boot.

The ninth inning proved so consequential because the teams had exchanged blows for the first eight innings, coming into it tied at 4-4. The Tigers scored first, with two runs in a first inning that Logan Gilbert had to labor through thanks to a missed strike three from home plate umpire John Libka, and an error from Luke Raley. But the Mariners answered with a pair of solo home runs in the third and fourth, from All-Star outfielders Julio Rodriguez, who went yard for the third game in a row, and Randy Arozarena, who bing bonged for the ninth time in two weeks. Arozarena’s went farther, but Julio’s was a bit more impressive in my view, both because he took it the opposite way, and because he followed it up with an outfield assist in the next half:

Gilbert avoided any damage through the remainder of his day, striking out nine Tigers over five and a third, to bring his strikeout percentage up to an MLB-leading 35.3%. His walk rate also rose to 6.0%, but we can forgive him that when we consider his outing ended with one of those walks, despite these being the pitches he threw:

If you’re inclined to blame Mitch Garver, I won’t go into my takes on framing here, but instead just direct you to the fact that he took the lead for the Mariners in the next half-inning with a 398-foot home run that he somehow hit 104.3 mph with a very short swing. It wasn’t to last, as the Tigers took the lead right back in the bottom half with a pair of runs off Casey Legumina and Gabe Speier. But the exchange of blows continued in the top of the eighth with Arozarena tying the game on an RBI double down the left-field line.

Given all the excitement that preceded and followed, it would be easy to miss Matt Brash’s lights-out inning of work in the eighth, precisely because it was so well done. But he racked up a pair of swinging strikeouts and a soft fly ball on just 10 pitches. In a game full of stand-out performances, the one you’d otherwise forget about is, exactly for that reason, the one that gets him today’s Sun Hat Award for a noteworthy contribution to the game.

Given that the Mariners had wasted two bases-loaded-nobody-out opportunities in the game, when it finally got to the ninth, it felt like the Mariners might be destined to lose as their karmic punishment. But it turns out their pair of NOBLETIGERs was just an homage to the franchise for which the term is named. And so too was their ninth inning, with the Mariners offense handing the Motown Nine a brutal ending.

They began with a pair of dingers. The first came from a pinch-hitting Jorge Polanco, who continued his mid-summer resurgence to take the lead. The second came off the bat of Cole Young, his second in the show, and his second hit of the day.

J.P. Crawford kept things going with a walk. That chased Tommy Kahnle, who left the series with a line of six hits, two walks, and seven earned runs over 0.0 innings pitched. Brenan Hanifee came in to try to clean up the mess for Detroit, but surrendered an RBI-double to Julio, who also had a pair of walks on the day along with that double, and the earlier dinger and outfield assist. A rough day for the haters. The run-scoring bonanza meant that Cal Raleigh would get one more PA before the All-Star break to try to tie Barry Bonds for the most home runs in the first-half. But Tigers manager, AJ Hinch, who is a bad leader and a coward, intentionally walked him. The Mariners exacted their revenge by executing a double steal, each advancing an additional base on a throwing error. For Cal, that was his tenth stolen base. In addition to padding his franchise record for most stolen bases in a single season by a catcher, it also makes him the third catcher ever with a 30-10 season, joining Carlton Fisk (1985, 37-17) and Ivan Rodriguez (1999, 35-25). Even when he’s not going ya-ya, he’s still making history.

Sweeping the winningest team in baseball puts the Mariners 1.5 games up on the Rays in the Wild Card race, and a recoverable-if-things-go-right five games back of Houston in the division. We’ll have more on the Mariners first half over the break, but I’ll let you get to our Draft coverage now, where one hopes the Mariners will have a better ending to the day than a Motown album.