Kade Anderson had his best-ever performance, and the Mariners extended their suffering another day.
The Mariners beat the Rockies 2-1 on Sunday in an uneventful game that was neither short nor long, exciting nor boring, meaningful nor insignificant. It was a baseball game between two bad teams, with just enough happening to be better than the offseason ahead. With the win, the Mariners take the series and avoid elimination entering the final week.
Anderson was the selling point for this one. He was fantastic
for the first time in the majors. On the one hand, it came against the league’s worst offense. On the other, it came at the league’s launching pad in Denver. However you prefer to qualify it, Anderson was excellent in a Big League start that counts for real. He threw seven scoreless innings, allowed just three runs hits, and walked none while striking out seven. Most importantly, he got tons of chase out of the zone and picked up a career-high 14 whiffs:
It was good to see. Anderson struggle in his first five starts in the majors, with a 5.33 ERA and 4.44 FIP. He hadn’t shown an ability to throw strikes or miss bats or prevent hard contact or keep the ball on the ground. That’s not abnormal for a rookie, especially one who threw all of 93 innings in the minors and none above Double-A. But a strong outing Sunday — and hopefully one more against the Angels next week — is a nice confidence booster entering the offseason.
On the other side, the Mariners were getting perfecto’d through three innings, and I was getting a bit nervous that I’d need to put some effort into this recap. Thankfully, they figured out Tomoyuki Sugano in the fourth. Randy Arozarena drew an eight pitch walk, and Dominic Canzone singled up the middle to bring a hustling Arozarena around to score the game’s first run. It looked like the Mariners might have a big inning in the works after Cal Raleigh walked, but Julio grounded into a double play to end the threat. The Mariners got a second run in the sixth inning, this time off Ryan Feltner. J.P Crawford singled to lead off, and Canzone doubled him home.
That was it for offense in this one. I’m not really exaggerating. I have listed three of the four hits and two of the three walks the Mariners collected in this one. Lazaro Montes walked in the seventh and Julio picked up an infield single in the ninth, if you want me to be thorough.
I was done with the recap, then Andrés Muñoz gave up a home run to Hunter Goodman in the bottom of the ninth to make it 2-1. After a walk, Dan Wilson came out with the trainer in tow. Muñoz left with an injury, and Eduard Bazardo took over. Bazardo struck out a batter, walked a batter to put the winning run on base, and struck out another batter to end the game.
The Mariners are still technically alive. The Rangers and Astros also lost on Sunday, so their “tragic number” remains at two. That puts the dagger in the hands of the Astros in Seattle next week.
