You really ought to just read John’s dispatch from Cooperstown. A game highlighted by home runs from Cal Raleigh and Mike Trout will make you want to appreciate the all-time greats, notwithstanding the stinker of a final score. Though a stinker it was: when the Mariners take the opportunity presented by an Astros loss on the day of a Gilbert vs. Hendricks matchup and lose 4-1, there’s little to that but a stinker.
Let’s start with something fun. After Kyle Hendricks was perfect through four while
topping out at 87.1 mph, Josh Naylor broke it up with a leadoff single in the fifth. He followed that up by stealing second base, already his second stolen base in just three games as a Mariner. More spectacularly, he then caught the battery napping—despite having just put them on notice—and took third base without a throw. That’s his 14th bag on the season, which is tied for 39th most in MLB. It’s more than Shohei Ohtani or Corbin Carroll. Regrettably, the bottom of the order could not cash in on the opportunity.
What happened next was the real catastrophe. Gilbert had looked nasty through the early part of the game, touching 98 on a day when he had full command of his splitter, the kind of thing MLB should put up a parental advisory before airing. He punched Mike Trout’s ticket twice on the splitter. In the second, he froze Taylor Ward with a curveball in the zone and directly followed that by catching Jo Adell whiffing on a curveball well below the zone. But he began the fifth by issuing a pair of leadoff walks. The first one was pretty brutal, with Ball 3 and Ball 4 both having been in the strike zone. After that, I can’t think of the last time I’ve seen Gilbert lose so much control over himself in a game. It has to have been at least 2022. He hit a batter, was constantly behind, and threw a couple wild pitches, one of which allowed a run to score. The nail in the coffin was a titanic two-run shot from Trout for his 1,000th career RBI. Go figure that’d come against the Mariners, against whom he has another 135 of them, more than any other franchise. Once Gilbert wiggled out of the inning, his day was done. Shoutout to Casey Legumina for a quietly perfect two innings in relief with a wicked fastball.
The offense was not entirely lifeless once the Angels took the lead. The slumping J.P. Crawford hit what should have been a home run if not for Adell pulling off one of the more impressive home run heists of the year. And Cal Raleigh hit his 41st ding dong of the season as Hendricks’ final batter of the day in the seventh. That ties Cal for the third most home runs by a catcher in a single season ever. For the record, the Mariners still have 56 more games to play. So with all due respect to Naylor, J.P, and Ben Williamson with his 10-pitch walk, that earns Cal today’s Sun Hat Award for a noteworthy individual contribution to the game.
But a noteworthy game it was not, except in its stench. It’s the kind of game to make you think that maybe Anthony Rendon is right, and baseball really is terrible. So we’re lucky to have it on a day when the baseball world celebrates Ichiro, and reminds us that come what may, baseball rules.
More from lookoutlanding.com:
- 40 in 40: Mike Leake
- Mariners Moose Tracks, 1/1/18: New Year, Edgar Martinez, and J.D. Martinez
- Mariner Moose Tracks, 12/31/17: Edgar Martinez, Barry Bonds, and Sandy Koufax
- Mariners Moose Tracks, 12/30/17: Edgar Martinez, Miguel Sano, and Wade Davis
- Jerry Dipoto doesn’t care about your fan theories
- Sporcle Friday: Most Walks in a Season
- Mariners Moose Tracks, 12/28/17: 4MOM, Jose Altuve, and Michael Fulmer
