The Mariners have had a tough run of games on this road trip. In particular, it seems the Florida heat may have gotten to the boys a bit, as the Mariners come into the final game of the first half of the season on a five-game losing streak.
Things got off to an inauspicious start when Hancock took a line drive from Jose Arnada on the first pitch of the game off his throwing hand. Hancock would go on to finish the inning, all smiles and thumbs up, but to say the training staff and Wilson felt confident
in that would be a lie. In the bottom of the second, Hancock walked Victor Mesa Jr. and was promptly pulled from the game for Jose Ferrar, who ended the inning.
Alright, so an unintentional bullpen day is incoming… when the Mariners have been struggling to score runs… and got blown out 6-1 the day before… no one would blame you if you started reaching for the remote. However, despite everything looking like the Mariners were cruising for a bruising, things didn’t shake out that way.
Top of the second, Josh Naylor gets things started with a single. Garver follows with a walk, and Cole Young hits a single of his own, loading the bases for Victor Robles. Typically, when the Mariners get into this type of situation, many fans would get to witness a NOBLETIGER, a common phenomenon for the Mariners, but today things were different. Robles slaps a ball that sinks fast into the outfield, caught by a diving Mullens, allowing Naylor to score from third.
Ok, maybe the Mariners aren’t as dead in the water as we might have thought. I guess I’ll settle back into the couch for a couple more innings. I mean, they may blow it, but at least they scored with runners on.
Cole Young steals second as Weston Wilson strikes out. Buddy Kennedy follows that up with a walk, bringing J.P. Crawford to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded again. J.P. proceeds to inside-out a pitch into left field for a double scoring two more and putting the Mariners up 3-0 in the second.
But the Mariners were far from done; this team was determined to go into the All-Star break on a high note. Hearing all the slander we have been putting on his name, Weston Wilson hit his second home run of the season to left field, extending the Mariners’ lead to four.
Buddy Kennedy reaches on an error and is advanced to second by a single from J.P. Crawford, putting two men on for Randy Arozarena. Of course, sensing the attention shifting off of him for a moment, Randy hits a three-run homer to right field.
The Mariners take a 7-0 lead and don’t relinquish it from there. Jonothan Arnada gets a good swing in the 8th against Bazzardo and ends the shutout with a home run of his own.
The Mariners were quick to respond as J.P. Crawford got another run back in the bottom of the 8th with a double, bringing around Buddy Kennedy.
The double from Crawford was the final nail in the coffin for the Rays; if the Arnada home run had given them any momentum at all, it had quietly been snuffed out by the back-to-back doubles from Kennedy and Crawford in the bottom of the inning. Munoz entered in the bottom of the 9th to shut the door and end the Mariners chapter on the first half of the season.
The Mariners finish the first half in second place in the AL West with a record of 48-49. This team has struggled a lot on the road this year, and that has been compounded by a lot of guys missing time with injury and just some plain old slumps from some of the more important batters in the lineup. But the first half is over now, we can only hope that this game is a sign of more to come in the second half of the season.
