It may not have been on the schedule, but tonight was a throwback night at T-Mobile Park. My friends, let me take you to a dark time called 2019. Logan Gilbert is still in High-A. George Kirby is stressed about his economic finale. Bryan Woo hasn’t been born yet. The youngest member of the Mariners’ rotation since the start of the season is Marco Gonzales, who is the same age as tonight’s starter, Jhonathan Díaz, at 27. Wade LeBlanc is our feel-good story, a crafty lefty whose dominance over the Red Sox remains one of the Mariners’ highlights of 2018. Tonight’s game reminded us just how spoiled we’ve become as as Mariners fans to enjoy the historic level of pitching we saw. Call it an appreciation tour, and definitely call it a return.
There were also other returns to the past. Scott Servais doesn’t want to compare this Mariners team to any in years past, but it’s hard not to see the parallels after a win like tonight’s, a game that, for all intents and purposes, the Mariners probably wouldn’t have should not have won. But with some serious pitching, Clutch Cal and some help from the White Sox themselves, the Mariners pulled out a classic 4-3 Mariners victory, and this time without one of their regular starters. It probably shouldn’t have happened this way. But it is.
Starting with the White Sox: Drew Thorpe, inexperienced but one of the best pitchers in the game, armed with a changeup, slider, cutter and a top-notch fastball that has sub-par velocity. average but who tunnels so well with his other pitches that he can still fool hitters. Starting for the Mariners: Jhonathan Díaz, starting on the spot in place of scheduled starter Bryan Woo (and depriving us of a Cal Poly alumni matchup, also featuring Cal Poly alum Mitch Haniger, go Mustangs), whose the best thing is being able to throw left-handed or right-handed.
With about a day’s notice that he would return to the big leagues for the first time since 2023, Díaz dodged and powered his way through 5.1 innings of work, a hair more than Scott Servais had hoped. He worked forward, throwing 19 of 23 first-pitch strikes, getting into good counts and trying to lure hitters into bad swings for weak-contact outs. At the end of the day, he mostly went one-on-one with rookie Thorpe, even though he allowed three times as many hits. That’s why they’re called crafty lefties, after all.
“They just told me ‘attack, attack the batter and try to get ahead in the counts,'” Díaz said after the game through translator Freddy Llanos.
The White Sox pounced on Díaz in the second inning, opening the inning with three consecutive hits (although the third was a base hit by Zach DeLoach, who shouldn’t count on many levels). However, demonstrating the veteran acumen that helped him pitch in the PCL’s bounce houses without succumbing to a double-digit ERA, Díaz managed to claw his way through allowing just one run, on an RBI single to Martín Maldonado, continuing to torment the Sailors even in a different uniform.
The Mariners’ best hope in this game was to try and work on Thorpe’s pitch count, forcing the White Sox to put away their shiny new toy early and bring back that tasty bullpen, already under siege since last night. However, after a 12-pitch first inning, that didn’t seem to be the case, as Thorpe easily moved to the top of the lineup.
The Mariners did a better job working off Thorpe’s pitch count in the second inning and even managed to tie the game in the process. Luke Raley hit a one-out double and Mitch Garver brought him home on his own double.
Both were hit solidly on fastballs, as Thorpe decided he couldn’t just throw the changeup 100% of the time, even though he certainly should have, in my opinion. But hey, we’ll take it.
Unfortunately, this tie was short-lived, as the White Sox took the lead early in the third, launching Díaz for two home runs. However, once again the damage can be characterized as “not as bad as it could have been”: the homers were both solo shots, and Díaz also stranded a runner after a single stolen base. He had his first clean run in the fourth (after wisely walking Luis Robert Jr. in the first) and another in the fifth, which was everything Scott Servais had hoped for from his starting job tonight.
The Mariners scored another run against Thorpe in the third, thanks to a double by Cal Raleigh, and more importantly, began tallying longer counts against Thorpe, including a rare walk to Dominic Canzone and a less rare walk to Mitch Garver, bringing Thorpe to 76 pitches late in the fourth and setting up the fifth as a pivotal inning that could take Thorpe out of the game early, if the Mariners could just put some pressure on him. Despite an eight-pitch battle from Josh Rojas, it looked like the Mariners were about to go down easy when Julio hit a grounder to third baseman Lenyn Sosa… who promptly airmailed the throw four feet to the -over the first baseman’s head, for the White Sox’s second error of the day. Okay, maybe the White Sox should be relegated. (Julio would then steal his second base of the game.)
Thorpe got out of that bind by striking out Cal Raleigh – and what a great experience for him – but with his pitch count tipping into nonagen territory, it was time for the White Sox bullpen to appear on the scene .
But first, the Mariners’ equally beleaguered bullpen had to show up, as Díaz led off the sixth giving up what would have been three straight low-hit singles, except Korey Lee was forced out at second on a pitch parachute by Zach DeLoach, misreading a ball Julio sneakily sold as if he was going to dive and catch, which Servais later called one of the most underrated plays in the game.
Trent Thornton took over and took care of the problem, almost immediately forcing Martín Maldonado into a double play. Not this time, Martín! Thornton also pitched a scoreless seventh, striking out two and scoring 97 on the gun. “Thorny is a very nervous guy…he was feeling it tonight,” Servais said. “He had good pace, he controlled the strike zone and he made some great throws. It was really fun to watch.
So let’s move on to the White Sox bullpen. First up: Justin Anderson, who got two quick takedowns despite a less-than-great command before walking Mitch Garver. The White Sox, sensing a victory in their clutches, called on Tanner Banks, who asked pinch hitter Tyler Locklear to immediately pursue a changeup for an easy groundout. Banks returned for the seventh and was spotted his first out in this “strikeout” against Ryan Bliss:
Enough of the White Sox Pity Zone, please, we’re trying to win ball games here. After JP Crawford grounded out, Banks walked Rojas on four pitches, leading Pedro Grifol to decide to cut his losses and call up Elon senior John Brebbia from the bullpen. Brebbia immediately had Julio Rodríguez strike out… I’m sorry to hear he didn’t strike out despite rolling a ball softly and seemingly directly at the second baseman. White Sox, what are you doing? This brought Cal Raleigh, who did what Cal Raleigh does:
Where would the Mariners be without Cal Raleigh? Who, by the way, also struggled in the minors in 2018, failing to crack any major Top 100 lists during his rise, something I simply won’t stop shouting about. Cal got the nod on a 3-0 count, which Servais called “obvious,” although he said not every hitter wanted to swing 3-0. But Cal, he says, has a gift for these kinds of places:
“He just doesn’t try to do too much,” Servais said. “I think some guys are a little too anxious. They start to see the finish line before they finish the race, so to speak. They are getting ahead. Cal doesn’t do that. He simply stays in the moment and moves forward step by step.
With the Mariners in familiar territory and clinging to a 4-3 lead, things got tricky in the eighth with Big Mike Baumann on the mound; he gave up a single, then the runner reached third with no outs on a stolen base and an errant throw from Baumann, who seemingly does this no matter which direction he faces. But Big Mike buckled down, getting a groundout and a strikeout, then Tayler Saucedo came in to tweak Danny Mendick, hitting for the left-handed DeLoach. With the Mariners unable to get anything out of left-hander Tim Hill in the bottom of the eighth, they sent Ryne Stanek to the mound to attempt his fifth save of the season, suggesting concerns about the health of Andrés Muñoz or the afraid of the Mariners. the White Sox at the bottom of the order. I choose to believe the latter. Stanek quickly got the first two outs before battling pinch hitter Gavin Sheets for eight pitches, eventually getting an easy flyout off his bat for the win.
“Striking at the right time is essential. We’ve lived on both sides, and right now we’re living on the right side, and a lot of that is due to Cal Raleigh in those places,” Servais said, although he acknowledged that his entire team had takes a step forward. recently.
“There are a lot of guys who have really stepped up over the last few weeks. You just see a different vibe from our guys when they step up to the plate, as crazy as that sounds. The trust comes, they really come together and solidify and lean on each other, and that’s what it takes.
It was not a pretty victory. But it allowed the Mariners to keep pace with the Astros, who also won tonight, and give some breathing room to the Rangers, who were completely crushed by the Dodgers. More importantly, it wasn’t as ugly as those dark games from 2018, 2019, and every other year as we waited with bated breath for our rotation to come to life in terrifying form, like a chamber of golums or gun-toting Chia Pets of 95 mph radiators. Tonight is a good reminder of how far the Mariners have come in just a few years and how much there is left to do.