The good thing about the punishing grind of an MLB season is it doesn’t allow a lot of time for wallowing. Just one day after the Mariners blew a winnable game in Detroit to drop a series against the lowly Tigers, they escaped with a win in Baltimore today in the series opener against the Orioles, 6-3. There were many aspects of this game that mirrored Sunday’s heartbreaking loss, but today the Mariners came out on top thanks to some timely challenges and a big blast from Josh Naylor.
Emerson Hancock was good, not great, today. The Achilles heel in Hancock’s breakout season – aside from some yucky peripherals on his fastball – has been his occasional command outages, something that’s plagued him since he was in the minors, although his struggles with command now seem to be more related to his expanded arsenal, especially the devastating but finicky sweeper.
That sweeper got away from Hancock in the third: he hit Blaze Alexander to lead off the inning before getting it back to strike out Sam Huff looking on the pitch. But Hancock then lost the handle on his sinker to Taylor Ward, walking him on five pitches, and losing an eight-pitch battle with Gunnar Henderson to walk the bases full. A sacrifice fly from Pete Alonso brought home the first run of the game, but Hancock was able to cap the damage there, getting Colton Cowser to fly out harmlessly to end the Orioles threat.
It wasn’t pretty – Hancock was at 69 pitches by the end of the third before bouncing back with a six-pitch fourth – with Hancock missing his good secondaries, needing to lean heavily on the sinker today, a pitch that has a propensity to get hit hard; he almost doubled up his usage of the pitch today, but also had some extra velo on the sinker, which helped keep the ball finding gloves. The only tick against Hancock was his search for command cost him about an inning of work, going just five innings a day after the Mariners got just 5.2 innings out of their starter yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Mariners hitters struggled against Orioles rookie Trey Gibson (not to be confused with umpire “Power” Tripp Gibson), making a start in place of the injured Chris Bassitt. Gibson poounded the bottom of the zone, eliciting a bunch of weak-contact groundball outs. Finally, in the fifth, Dominic Canzone led off the inning with a single, and then with one out Jhonny Pereda hit a solid line drive single (101.2 mph exit velocity). Ryan Bliss, getting a start after Colt Emerson was a late scratch with back tightness and J.P. Crawford was placed on the 10-day IL after being hit in the hand by Public Enemy #1 Framber Valdez – did his job, knocking in the run with a sac fly. Pretty good, considering Bliss had been ferried to the ballpark with such little fanfare his bags didn’t even arrive (leading to a very cute exchange postgame where similar Short King Brad Adam offered to loan Bliss some of his clothes). Cole Young, pressed into leadoff duty, kept the pressure on, cashing in his Dollar Token of the day (good for one (1) single per game).
Orioles manager Craig Albernaz didn’t want his rookie starter seeing the top of the Mariners a third time, and yanked Gibson for fellow rookie Anthony Nunez, who started off by walking Julio to load the bases for Josh Naylor. Right field at Orioles Park isn’t the friendliest in baseball, but it’s still pretty darn personable, as was the Orioles fan who helpfully stuck out a hat to catch Naylor’s grand slam, hit a mere 358 feet – out in 19 0f 30 parks.
With Hancock going short, Cooper Criswell handled the sixth, hanging a zero. Wilson attempted to get a seventh inning out of his long reliever, but the first two batters reached – a walk and a ground ball single, some more tough BABIP luck for Criswell – and moved to scoring position with a swinging bunt from Huff. With the lineup turning over, Wilson tapped Matt Brash to put out the fire and Brash didn’t so much put out the fire as he did pour gasoline on it, strike a match, and drain the local water supply just in case. Brash just did not have a handle on any of his pitches, immediately throwing a slider to the backstop, allowing the runner to score from third, before drilling Ward on the next pitch, a 98 mph sinker. Brash then walked Henderson, landing a few pitches on the plate but also missing wildly armside with his slider, to load the bases, bringing up Alonso in another RBI opportunity.
Jhonny Pereda has been an offensive lift to the club if not always Gold Glove level behind the dish – he ranks dead last in MLB in challenges won as a catcher among catchers with a minimum of 10 challenges – but what Pereda does understand is momentum swing challenges. He might not challenge the correct pitches, but he does pick the correct inflection points, if that makes sense. Here, potentially burning the Mariners’ final challenge in order to get a called strike three and not walk in a run, and create an out for a struggling pitcher, was the right inflection point challenge; it just also happened to be a good pitch to challenge on.
Brash would wiggle off the hook poised over barracuda-infested waters in the next at-bat, with Ryan Bliss cleanly handling a groundout to put down the Orioles threat.
After the excitement of that inning, the Mariners offense added another run in the top of the eighth – Naylor produced another hit, a single, took second on a wild pitch, and then hustled home on a ground ball single to right from Arozarena, giving Eduard Bazardo a four-run cushion for the bottom of the inning. But Bazardo wasn’t sharp, giving that run back immediately on a single, walk, and flyout that moved the runners into scoring position before giving up an RBI single to Blaze Alexander. The Orioles pinch-hit for Huff with lefty Samuel Basallo, who hit a deep sac fly that looked like it easily scored the runner from third – but wait! This wacky game was not out of wack just yet. Julio made a strong throw in from center that nailed Blaze Alexander at second. Dan Wilson then challenged that Alexander was out at second before Holliday crossed home plate, and on review, it was clear that Holliday’s foot was still mid-stride. Score one for Jake Kuruc and the replay room.
Score two for us getting the gift of Bazardo reverse Dirty Dancing Julio in the dugout:
Run off the board, back to a three-run lead for Andrés Muñoz. Would it be enough?
Like everything else in this game, it wasn’t pretty, but it was enough. Muñoz talked to the media postgame about how much it meant that his team had faith in him to go back out there and do what he hadn’t been able to do yesterday, acknowledging he’d let the team down a few times, but avowed that he’s working hard, and that’s all he can do, to navigate over the baches en el camino – the bumps in the road, team translator Freddy Llanos supplied. Emerson Hancock – always one to deflect praise – was quick to defend his teammate in his postgame interview.
“We’re a team. We are a team. We’re together,” declared Hancock. “There are going to be nights when we’re going to have to pick each other up…it’s a long season, and it’s about sticking together. When you know the guys behind you have your back, it can help you in those moments out there.”
“This game is about responding and tonight – huge moment for him, he put yesterday behind him and went out and had a huge save for our team.”
The Mariners responded tonight, not playing their cleanest game but securing a win nonetheless. They’ll need to continue responding in that fashion over the course of this lengthy road trip, their longest of the season to date, where the bumps in the road might be metaphorical and literal.
