Because the 2024 Mariners refuse to be normal, what looked like a comfortable 7-1 win over the Rangers became a stressful ninth-inning affair before Ryne Stanek, who had no business in this game, n gets Corey Seager, the tying run to the plate, to plant a ball like a kiss into the glove of first baseman Tyler Locklear for the final out of the game. I enjoy the commitment to the end, not so much the constant lake of cortisol that the 2024 Mariners force me to swim in. Forget Chaos Ball, it’s Beta Blocker Ball.
“It’s never easy,” Scott Servais said after the match. “Our guys don’t expect that to be the case.”
Honestly, things started off weird right away in this one, with Kirby, normally stingy with walks, walking Marcus Semien on seven pitches, but Kirby came back to get three weak-contact outs, each on his secondary pitches: a flyout soft from Corey Seager on the splitter, an easy groundout from Adolis García on the slider that held Semien at second base, and a weak hit on Nathanael Lowe’s curveball that Locklear caught perfectly at first base. Not the most dominant start, but something to build on.
The Mariners then did what they don’t do often this year and helped their starter by getting on the board immediately against Nathan Eovaldi, electrifying the packed house (43,448 fans in attendance) at T-Mobile Park. For the second day in a row, JP Crawford made solid contact (100.8 EV) on the first pitch he saw but just on a defender. However, Josh Rojas threw something on both holes, going for a full count that led to a walk. Julio Rodríguez then smoked a single up the middle (always a good sign!), capitalizing on a pitch to the middle of the plate, which brought the speedy Rojas to third. Cal Raleigh pounced on a first-pitch splitter that ended up in his current left loop zone to earn the first run of the day, and also stole second during Mitch Garver’s at-bat. Maybe the new hair makes it more aerodynamic.
After going down quietly in the second half, the top of the lineup applied pressure again, with Rojas drawing a one-out walk, his second of the game. Julio then sent a cutter into the upper middle of the plate to hang out with some new friends in the bullpen at a cool 106.4 mph, making the score 3-0. I love Eovaldi’s reaction here from the moment the ball comes off the stick.
Raleigh and Garver then each worked balls to keep the pressure on Eovaldi, struggling some with his command, as Dominic Canzone earned the game’s fourth point, tackling a first-pitch splitter on the outside edge and managing to pull it (101.1 mph) through the hole to shortstop.
“With our staff, you get a few points lead, it’s like you have a million lead,” Josh Rojas said after the game.
For the second straight day, the Rangers went to their bullpen early, this time summoning Brock Burke, who beat the Mariners without a fight in the fourth and fifth innings. Meanwhile, Kirby had two stressful innings in his and fifth innings. He managed to get around the problems in the fourth after throwing an infield hit to García, who stole second on the at-bat of his pesky rodent boyfriend Wyatt Langford, who had a hit on the pitch and then stole the second himself. With runners on second and third, Kirby went for another full count against Travis Jankowski, but managed to hit him with a half-swing on a slider – one of the few two-strike whiffs Kirby had on the slider today (he only had three whiffs out of the 24 sliders he threw, and only seven swings on the field total). If you can call it a swing.
The Rangers finally managed to get a run off Kirby in the fifth. Ezequiel Duran struck out for a base hit, and Kirby recklessly attempted to field the bunt, throwing it past his rookie first baseman to put a runner on second with one out. One out later, Kirby had Semien in an 0-2 count, but Semien made two 2-2s, forcing Kirby to the plate and hitting the first extra base hit and the first ball hit over 100 mph for the Rangers (104.2 mph). , sending a double ground ball down the line for the Rangers’ first run of the day.
Perhaps that was the level of annoyance Kirby needed, as he came back in the sixth and struck out the side on 14 pitches, forcing the Rangers to widen his heater zone – something he managed to do do it all day. Trent Thornton then pitched another strong inning, putting the Rangers up 1-2-3 in the seventh. Thornton also got the first out in the seventh, forcing catcher Andrew Knizner – replacing catcher Jonah Heim, who is on paternity leave – to field out before giving up a line drive single to Marcus Semien. Scott Servais, who had joked before the game that he was counting on Tayler Saucedo to face Corey Seager, then called on Saucedo to do just that: It took only one pitch for Sauce to force a double play at the late-inning grounder as Seager departs, once again keeping him mercifully quiet in this series.
Meanwhile, the Mariners continued to pile up runs against the Rangers bullpen, which proved crucial in the ninth inning. In the seventh, Josh Rojas hit an 0-2 homer to increase the lead to 5-1:
And in the eighth, it was the Ro Show again, with Rojas delivering another two-out RBI, this time with the bases loaded. Rojas – who had already walked twice in the game, two of the Mariners’ eight walks today – had another full count, forcing Rangers reliever Jesus Tinoco over the plate, and he didn’t miss what he got, a slider in the fat part of the plate.
But hits aside, Rojas was also pleased with his two-goal performance. “This is exactly where I want to be,” he said after the match. “Sometimes when I’m faced with a crisis, I try to get out of it and start running around a bit, throwing everything away. But when I can get the timing down and make tight throws, that’s when I know I’m getting closer to where I want to be.
With the Mariners leading a seemingly comfortable 7-1, Scott Servais called on Eduard Bazardo to try to save Ryne Stanek from having to work a second straight day. Working the middle of the lineup, Bazardo allowed four of five batters to reach on singles, miraculously allowing just one run to score and getting two outs before the Rangers elevated Josh Smith as a pinch hitter with the bases loaded. Bazardo walked him on four straight pitches, walking on the run and overturning the lineup, still forcing Servais to call on Stanek for an unnecessarily stressful outing. Stanek got Semien in a 1-2 count before giving up a bloop hit to score two more and make this game an uncomfortable and unnecessarily close 7-5. Fortunately, that’s where it would stay, as Seager chased down a 3-1 throw, a splitter at the bottom of the zone, grounding him to Tyler Locklear at first, who made a nice play.
Rojas, for his part, never doubted. “That’s kind of how we feel as a team right now. Hey, we get up early, it’s kind of our ball game.
Seamen ! They can’t make it easy for us. As someone who also has a flair for the dramatic, I have to grudgingly appreciate it. I would normally end here with something like blah blah, looks like the bats are turning around, but I’ve typed that phrase 20 times in recaps this year and the bats have yet to show the genre of consistency that will allow me to stop buying Tension Tamer tea in bulk (even with the eight walks, they still removed 14 times today). However, the Mariners picked up a series win against the Rangers today, and the Astros were beaten by the Tigers, so I’ll sleep a little easier tonight, at least – perhaps with the words of Josh Rojas who ring in my ears.
Bonus content:
While interviewing Josh Rojas after the game, Julio — not content with trying to take the infielders’ jobs, apparently — stopped to ask a question of his own. Honestly, nothing that would be out of place in a scrimmage.