The Mariners series against Cleveland got off to a dreadful start, as the Mariners watched a 4-0 lead evaporate in a series opener loss that went down as one of the most frustrating on the year, with infield hits and weak contact pushing across runs for Cleveland. Today the Mariners salvaged a game in the series by stealing one back in similar fashion, doing just enough to squeak past the Guardians and put an end to their streak of road losses with a 4-2 win.
Initially, it felt like the team was on
a one-way road to Sweepsville. The first time through the Mariners hitters reached only via free passes and Cleveland mistakes, squandering both a Cal Raleigh hit by pitch and a leadoff walk by Eugenio Suárez in the second, with the inning extended by a two-out misplay by the Cleveland infield defense (it was scored as a hit for J.P. Crawford, but spiritually it was not). Julio Rodríguez got a two-out hit in the third, a parachuting fly ball, that wasn’t exactly solid contact but still at least left the infield. A leadoff single by Geno in the fourth likewise went for naught. Once again, it seemed like the Mariners bats were disappearing at the worst possible time against Cleveland starter Tanner Bibee, fading away like the family photo in Back to the Future.
Meanwhile, Bryce Miller avoided trouble in his first two innings, but got away with some mistakes: at times, his fastball caught too much of the plate, and his split, his security blanket from his last outing, was hanging up in the zone instead of getting that good vertical bite. It finally caught up with Miller in the third; he made a good pitch to Steven Kwan, who reached out and tapped a four-seamer across the plate into left field for a double, and then made a terrible pitch to Daniel Schneemann, putting a first-pitch splitter dead red for a mammoth two-run home run. “They don’t usually swing at that 0-0 splitter” said Miller postgame, suggesting that maybe Kwan at second had relayed the pitch, but this pitch looks pretty juicy regardless. After the Mariners’ paltry offensive showing yesterday, a two-run lead felt much bigger than it is.
But finally, the Mariners were able to do something in the fifth inning with yet another leadoff single, this time a more authoritative stroke from Crawford. Randy Arozarena then pounced on a 2-1 cutter on the inner half of the plate from Bibee for his 26th homer of the year, a huge, game-tying shot.
Bryce Miller has been battling an illness all week (Bryan Woo not-so-jokingly suggested Miller should be masked on the team flight to Cleveland, if not banished to a separate area of the plane entirely); he worked out just one time this week (“barely”) and did a delayed light bullpen. He battled through his illness today, following up Randy’s blast with maybe his best inning of the day, stuff-wise. He finally was able to get the splitter reliably traveling north-south instead of east-west, and similarly was able to get the curveball to do the same thing. But the Mariners didn’t help out their starter, going down in the top of the sixth inning on just six pitches, putting Miller right back out there. To his credit, Miller navigated through the top of the Guardians lineup to clear the sixth inning for the first time this season.
“Glad to get through six, finally. It only took me to the end of August,” he deadpanned postgame.
“Thought I was going more, so we’re gonna have to have a talk with Woody about that…I was warmed up, on the way up the stairs and then Woody blocked my way…Imma blame it on being sick, that’s why he didn’t let me go back out. That’s his excuse.”
The Mariners got something cooking in the top of the seventh, with Dominic Canzone honoring his Cleveland roots with a leadoff single (he was then wiped out by a Crawford fielder’s choice). Cole Young remembered he’s seventh-inning Cole Young and had his best at-bat of the day, working a walk off Bibee, forcing Steven Vogt to go to the bullpen and summon former Mariner Matt Festa. Festa got a groundout from Arozarena, pushing runners into second and third but putting a critical second out on the board, bringing up Cal Raleigh, who has had to this point a wretched series. Still, the Guardians wanted no part of Raleigh, intentionally walking him to bring up Julio.
In a full count, Julio poked a ball up the middle that looked like an inning-ending groundout, but was ruled to have beaten out Schneeman’s throw. Cleveland challenged, but the call was upheld, giving the Mariners a 4-2 lead as Crawford and Young (smartly) both scored on the play. That was especially important because Cal got caught napping off second base and was picked off to end the inning. What a stupid series of baseball this has been (both derogatory and complimentary).
Shoutout to Kris Negrón and Cole Young for some heads-up baserunning for a clutch extra run, and shoutout to Young for again coming up with a solid line-drive single in his next at-bat. Now start doing that earlier in the game, Cole.
After a bullpen meltdown in the first game of this series—that was more bad luck than it was poor execution—the back end of the Mariners bullpen slammed the door decisively today. The trio of Gabe Speier, Matt Brash, and Andrés Muñoz were each the best version of themselves today, not allowing a Cleveland runner to reach base and collecting five strikeouts among the three of them, two each for Speier and Muñoz, whose slider had especially delicious bite today. After the ball literally didn’t bounce in the Mariners’ favor in the first two games of this series—even in yesterday’s game, they had an xBA of .310 vs. Cleveland’s .275—Mariners fans will happily take a win, even one on a suspect call. Sometimes the baseball gods take, and sometimes they give. Okay, they usually take and very rarely give, giving all the more reason to celebrate. Also to celebrate: the Yankees, Astros, and Royals all lost today, moving the mariners back to two games behind the Astros in the division and keeping them safely in the third Wild Card spot for now. And now they finally get to get out of Cleveland. Huzzahs all around.
