Mariners use both small ball and long ball to defeat Angels, 7-2

Julio Rodríguez, Randy Arozarena, and Cal Raleigh all homer in win but Dominic Canzone provides the big blow

The Mariners defeated the Angels by a score of 7-2 tonight, but that score doesn’t reflect how close this contest was for most of the game. George Kirby labored and the Mariners struggled to scratch across runs against old frenemy Tyler Anderson, but they hung in long enough to open this one up in the second third of the game. Julio Rodríguez, Randy Arozarena, and Cal Raleigh all hit milestone home runs—for Julio, his third consecutive of this series (the third time in his career he’s had three straight games with a homer); Randy crossed the threshold of 20 once again, something that took him until August last season; and Cal hit the 40 mark—but Dominic Canzone provided the difference-maker in this game.

Those hoping for a repeat of George Kirby’s stellar last outing against the Angels were to be disappointed. The Angels were able to see Kirby much better this time around, as he worked around some hard contact thanks to outstanding efforts from his outfielders (and his infielders: Mitch Garver and J.P. Crawford teamed up to catch Jo Adell stealing after he’d worked a walk on a questionable call in a 10-pitch at-bat, ending the second inning.) The Angels got their first run seemingly immediately after ROOT Sports put up a graphic extolling that the Angels had scored none of their runs this series via the home run; Taylor Ward crushed the first pitch he saw from Kirby, a fastball right in the heart of the plate.

Meanwhile, the Mariners didn’t seem to have any additional success against Tyler Anderson, despite the fact that he’s pitched against them approximately seven hundred times. They worked some long plate appearances to start the game, squandering a one-out two-on opportunity in the first, but weren’t able to scratch anything across from that or a Mitch Garver single in the second. It took until the third inning for the Mariners to record some damage against Anderson, of course via a Julio Rodríguez home run:

Maybe it’s the proximity to LA, but Julio sure seems to shine brightly in this ballpark.

Kirby almost gave that run back in the third, issuing back-to-back two-out walks to Zach Neto and Mike Trout, giving him his third walk already of the evening and prompting a visit from pitching coach Pete Woodworth. Kirby was able to get Nolan Schanuel to ground out to end the threat, but it was a microcosm of Kirby’s night: his final line looks fairly burnished, with six innings and just two runs allowed against nine strikeouts (and those three walks), but the actual getting there was often laborious.

Thankfully, instead it was the Mariners who got the extra run in the inning, when Randy Arozarena hit this no-doubt blast to right-center to secure another 20-HR season:

At this rate it seems a fait accompli that Arozarena will blow past his career-high for homers (23), set in 2023. Sometimes, because his on-field persona is so outsized and so confident, it’s hard to remember that Arozarena is only in his fifth full season in the big leagues.

But this game continued to be a labor for Kirby. He opened the fourth with a ten-pitch battle against Ward that ended in a strikeout, but was able to button things up quickly after that. But he wasn’t able to totally work around a pair of leadoff singles in the fifth, even though he was able to keep the damage to just a game-tying sacrifice fly.

Once again, though, the Mariners offense was able to pick up Kirby, taking the lead in this game and never looking back. José Fermin took over for Sam Bachman, who had relieved Anderson in the fifth, and Cal Raleigh greeted him extremely rudely:

With that blast, Cal became the seventh catcher ever to reach 40-HR mark, and just the fifth player for the Mariners to do so (and the first since Nelson Cruz in 2016, almost a decade ago).

Then the Mariners decided to score some runs not on home runs: two different Angels pitchers walked the bases full, setting up a potential NOBLETIGER situation for the Mariners after Mitch Garver popped out harmlessly. But Dominic “C is for Contact” Canzone came through:

That is...not a swing decision that should have worked out, but hey, live by the contact, die by the contact. The zoo must have been closed. The Mariners did get another run when J.P Crawford reached on a fielding error, making it 6-2.

But even with that comfortable lead, things continued to be a battle for Kirby, who loaded the bases with just one out in the bottom of the inning after two singles and a hit by pitch (Yoan Moncada, who had to leave the game). Once again, Kirby was able to navigate out of trouble, getting Logan O’Hoppe to chase after a fastball up and getting Luis Rengifo to chase a slider below the zone that Gary Hill on the radio call described as “Venemous” and also “Devastating. Icky. Gross.” Spooky season here already?

Trent Thornton held things down with two innings of scoreless relief after that and Carlos Vargas worked a clean ninth that was so quick I couldn’t even get chart art done. Meanwhile, the Mariners scored one more via a Ben Williamson single, scoring Jorge Polanco, to put this one safely into low-leverage territory and deliver the rare Easy W at the Big A.

I don’t know why this particular ballpark seems to give the Mariners (Julio excepted) fits, but it feels like it’s always a battle. These are battles the Mariners must win, though. The Astros lost again, drawing the Mariners within four games of the division, but the Wild Card race remains tight, with the Red Sox and Rangers—on a five-game win streak and one of the hottest teams in baseball—both winning, nipping right at the Mariners’ heels. There’s no room for error, no room for the offense not picking up the defense and vice versa. As the series preview called it, this is “crunch time.” The Mariners did enough offensively today to stay out of another unfavorable extra-innings situation on the road; they’ll need to keep that up during this punishing 17-straight-game stretch and sprint into August. It only gets tougher from here.