At what point are they just “innings” for this Mariners team?
Seattle’s opening game of their four-game set with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was a 7-6 thriller that played an excellent, if slightly warped cover of Wednesday night’s walk-off win. Discontent with the thought of a 9:30 wrap-up on a school night, like Superman beneath a yellow star Seattle refused to be denied victory, provided that said victory make Luke Jackson very, very tired.
Though the night concluded with a different man whose
name sounds like a computer-generated pop-country musician, Jackson is an apt eidolon for tonight’s game. The veteran righty has not been central to the Mariners organization for long. In fact, he’s been a member for less than a month, signing late in August after disappointing seasons saw him cast adrift from Texas and Detroit. The night before, with the A-team of bullpen gassed, Jackson picked up two innings of work, keeping Seattle right in the game with just enough against a struggling team. Tonight, he worked another responsible frame, yielding one run despite getting groundball contact as is hoped of him. Expecting more is asking to be let down, and yet the expectation of holding things close enough would have landed on fertile grounds tonight.
This was a game Seattle could have more reasonably dropped than most, given the state of their bullpen. They won instead, because in the first half of this marathon, Bryce Miller looked better than he’s looked in ages, not quite clearing six frames and outpitching his four run line. On a rested night, that’s another Bazardo-Ferguson-Speier-Brash-Muñoz affair, but Jackson and Jose Castillo stood for Ferguson and Speier and they stood firm. With a tip of the hat to Josh Kirshenbaum of MLB, the M’s pen is now at 22 2/3rd innings without allowing an earned run over their last four games. Their ability to bow without splintering left space for Seattle’s relentless offensive pressure to finally break through.
The early concern offensively was that the club might break through their own bodies. Josh Naylor seemed uncomfortable with his left shoulder, where the M’s first baseman has dealt with a nagging injury much of this season. Jorge Polanco, Julio, and Jorge Polanco about 4-7 more times whacked baseballs off themselves against Angels starter Jose Soriano, who labored through just four frames and seemingly destined the M’s for a blowout victory as initially hoped.
Seattle pounced in the bottom of the 2nd, with Luke Raley wearing an upper-90s fastball so hard he redirected it off his knee up into the stands on the third base side. It was the most extraordinary air captured in my memory of a hit by pitch that made body contact. Luke Raley should consider using his own legs to hit, and 98 other great ideas to improve baseball. One of those being, of course, adding more magnets inside the baseball and Raley’s body, as the outfielder took another pelting the subsequent play, with a possible double play ball from Leo Rivas instead thunking into left field off a throw by first baseman Logan Davidson.
J.P. Crawford shone twice on the night, once early and once late, but this first double was a quintessential hit of his when the M’s shortstop is going well. Meeting the ball where pitched, his laser liner to left let Rivas and Raley run rampant. Walks to Randy and Cal let a similar double from Julio threaten to break things wide open.
But that was where the roll concluded, until the 11th at least. Just four M’s starters – Arozarena, Julio, Polanco, and J.P. – recorded hits, and they both recorded two. Cal walked three times, twice intentionally. It wasn’t a particularly poor display by M’s hitters, with Julio robbed of another extra-base hit by a diving catch that also saved runs late in the game. Despite a comedic routine worthy of some acclaim of making Randy Arozarena go back to first after numerous essentially-perfect stolen base efforts at second, the M’s could not shatter the deadlock through nine.
The existence of the deep September bench affords Seattle flexibility, but said flexibility is still beholden to the behemoth that is a modern bullpen. The entirety of the six-man bench played today, along with seven pitchers and all nine starters, bringing a whopping 22 of the 28 active members of Seattle’s roster into play today. The four starters, Emerson Hancock, and Gabe Speier watched as the game dragged to the 11th, seeing Crawford hook a single off southpaw Sammy Peralta in the 11th to reknot things, and ultimately head to the 12th.
Among the 0-fer starters was Naylor, whose shoulder is a point of concern, but whose overall athleticism and guile was once again on display. 0-for-6 with two stolen bases (27/29 on the season now) is a line that’s been achieved before the Manfred Man made it off the drawing board, but it is more laughably plausible now. Comeback Player of the Year candidate Jorge Polanco put up another brilliant swing to draw a 6-6 tie on another RBI double, and the dugout stirred one final time.
With Cole Young having subbed in already, Seattle had scuttled the DH to keep a capable second baseman on the field, as was needed in the 11th. Victor Robles pinch-hitting for Luke Raley left Seattle with just their rookie third catcher on the bench, destined to pinch-hit only if Robles could not end it. He was ready. Right, Harry?
“I thought Robles was gonna hit before me. I don’t know. They told me to get ready to hit and I was like, alright, bet. And I just got ready.”
Okay. He was not necessarily ready. But he got ready, because Victor, in a flash of genius you have to do your best Nathon Fillion for, bunted for a hit to load the bases for the hitless rookie. Who needs experience when you have grimoires and hexes at your back and Georgia peach fuzz on your top lip?
First. Place.
