Eugenio Suarez strands the Pirates at Sea with walk off homer as Mariners take series
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – Through the first seven of their ten game homestand to end the month of May, the Seattle Mariners are six and one after today’s Sunday matinee rubber match. Third baseman Eugenio Suarez, who the Pirates got to after an intentional walk of Jarred Kelenic, blasted a hanging slider in the dead center part of the plate into the bullpen to give Seattle the walk-off win. This homestand has been a big stretch of games not only for the team but for several players, including centerfielder Julio Rodriguez who had two hits today including a solo shot in the bottom of the first to get the offense going. Seattle moves into third place in the AL West, for the time being, ahead of the final series of the homestand when the New York Yankees come to town.
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Marco Gonzales had another solid outing, going 5.2 innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Gonzales grinds out a strong start
Mariners starting pitcher Marco Gonzales had another solid outing, making it two in a row, following a brutal start in Boston when the Red Sox hung eight runs in less than two innings on the former Gonzaga Bulldog. Since that game on May 17th, in two starts, Gonzales hasn’t allowed more than two runs and put his team in solid position to win both of those games. While Gonzales did give up five hard hit balls on the day, Marco was able to mitigate the damage that the Pirates caused until the fifth inning. Pittsburgh only got one run off Marco on a measly three hits, and while Gonzales probably could’ve completed the inning, his pitch count was rising at the 90 mark and so Matt Brash was brought on to get the final out. Overall, Marco had a good start and once again put his team in position to win.
Seattle Mariners centerfielder Julio Rodriguez is pelted with seeds while he holds the home run trident following his solo homer in the bottom of the 1st (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Julio heating up
Seattle’s resident centerfield roamer, Julio Rodriguez, is getting past the narrative of a sophomore slump, as he continues to put together good days at the plate. Today, Rodriguez got the offense going for the Mariners on a solo homer with two outs in the bottom of the first, just as he did in the first game of this series back on Friday. After he mashed a slider above the zone, depositing it into the Pirates bullpen, Julio singled in the next inning to make it his sixth multi-hit game in the past seven that he’s played in. While the beginning of his year was rough, that was precisely what it was: the beginning of the season. Pitchers are going to attack Rodriguez in different ways than they did in his rookie year, and that’s to be expected. Adjustments are non-stop in sports, and Julio was adjusting to how opposing pitchers were trying to attack him and it looks like he’s finding his groove. Considering that Julio had three of the top five highest batted balls today, it’s safe to say he’s trending in the right direction.
The Seattle Mariners offense throughout the course of the game, including JP Crawford who scored on a Jarred Kelenic double (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Building blocks
Outside of Julio, Seattle had some solid approaches at the plate as Cal Raleigh pushed a solo homer over the wall in right field on a ball that just kept on carrying, Jarred Kelenic reached base three times while adding a double, and JP Crawford continued his strong homestand with another hit. The Mariners have been playing more sound, sustainable baseball as of late as they’ve racked up the base hits and stacked up the walks to get runners on base and actually drive them in, two things they weren’t really doing to begin the year. While Seattle’s hit total wasn’t overall impressive at seven, they came in moments when the Mariners needed them as they added runs throughout the game and didn’t rely on a burst of them to sustain.
The sort of offense that Seattle has been putting together lately is exactly the sort of thing that the Mariners need to be doing going forward. It’s sustainable, and they aren’t relying on the longball as they have for most of the past few seasons. That sort of attack left them searching for answers and left their pitching staff without run support time and time again. It certainly doesn’t hurt that most of the lineup seems to be finding a groove, as JP Crawford and Jarred Kelenic have continued to play well since the season began but Julio Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh are finding a rhythm. All of this mentioned as Ty France, another batter who’s been heating up as of late, had an “off” day today as he didn’t record a hit. Seattle’s bats are starting to click, but they must continue to improve.
Bumpy from the bullpen
The Mariners bullpen, nicknamed “Los Bomberos” last season which means the firefighters for the reliever's ability to “put out fires,” has been a huge part of the team's success since 2021. Seattle has had nearly their entire pitching staff clicking for these past three seasons, and that’s been the case this year as well despite some turnover. Pitching coach Pete Woodworth, bullpen coach Stephen Vogt, and the rest of the crew have taken in names like Gabe Speier, Justin Topa, Trevor Gotta, and Tayler Saucedo and gotten the most out of them that they possibly could. Before coming to the Mariners, those names were relatively outcasted relievers that didn’t seem like they were going to get much usage or had much value, but Seattle’s staff saw something in them and they’ve mostly paid dividends.
Today, the bullpen hit a bump in the road in the eighth inning, up by two runs and looking to get to the bottom of the frame to tack more on. Justin Topa had come in following Gabe Speier, looking to hold that lead and send Seattle to another opportunity to add on insurance, but Pittsburgh had other plans. Things started bad when leadoff man Andrew McCutchen reached first as Mariners shortstop JP Crawford’s throw on a grounder went wide of first baseman Ty France, sailing into the dugout and thus giving McCutchen second base. Bryan Reynolds hit a triple into the right field corner, scoring McCutchen. Reynolds later scored on a wild ball four as Jack Suwinski, in the game for Carlos Santana, took first and the game was tied at three. It was frustrating, given how it happened, but it was another tight situation, something that Seattle is used to.
Seattle Mariners reliever Tayler Saucedo got out of a huge bases loaded jam to send this game to the bottom of the 10th (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Saucedo saves the day, and Suarez sends us home
Despite having chances in the bottom of the eighth and ninth to get ahead for the win, the Mariners faltered and couldn’t find that late magic they’ve used to win numerous games over the past few years just yet. That meant that this game was going into extra innings, and Tayler Saucedo came in as the seventh pitcher that Seattle used in this game. Bryan Reynolds singled as the leadoff man, pushing ghost runner Andrew McCutchen to third for runners on the corners. Saucedo was able to bounce back to get Connor Joe and Suwinski on strikeouts to nearly get the door closed on the potential Pirates scoring opportunity, but an intentional walk of Rodolfo Casto (who’s been good against lefties this year) loaded the bases for Pittsburgh. One of the more high-leverage situations you can get, and certainly the highest Saucdeo’s faced in Seattle, brought a challenge that he was able to respond to. With a full count against young and talented third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, Saucedo threw a nasty dropping changeup that got a silly hack out of the Pirates batter and left the bases loaded.
“It was really cool. You come to these games as a kid, you see that, and then you get to live in that moment. It was just like those emotions came out of me. I was super excited to just be in there, and obviously keep my team in the game. It was great.”
“A lot. You know, I mean, it means a lot. Obviously, it took me a while to get into that spot. But he felt that he trusted me and I just wanted to prove him right. It was really good.”
That sent us to the bottom of the tenth, where ghost runner JP Crawford was moved to third by Ty France on a swinging bunt that made things hopeful instantly. A strikeout by Julio Rodriguez for the second out. Pittsburgh opted to intentionally walk Jarred Kelenic, who stole second easily as the Pirates weren’t monitoring it, to get to Eugenio Suarez. Geno had relatively struggled in the game, only getting on base once on a walk, but is always a dangerous batter. Pirates reliever Robert Stephenson didn’t make things too difficult on the Mariners third basemen, leaving a hanging slider in the dead center of the strike zone. Suarez sent the ball with a one-way ticket to the Pittsburgh bullpen, banging off the digital scoreboard that was displaying an Alaska airlines ad, sending the 38,219 fans at T-Mobile Park home happy and clinching a series victory.
“It’s not the first time that’s happened in my career, I understand. But in that moment was I was looking for something, it’s your time, you got it, you got to do something. To be honest, I’m not trying to hit a homerun but I tried to put a ball in play and I got a big hit. I know Stephenson for a long time he’s gonna come in with a slider. I was ready for that pitch, he hangs it right there in my strike zone and I was ready to make a play... I was ready, and I hit a home run. ”
Seattle Mariners first baseman Ty France douses third baseman Eugenio Suarez after his walk off homer (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Searching for series wins
Seattle has started to click and are getting series wins, which is a good benchmark if they want to get back to the playoffs this year. We talked about it last season down the stretch, and it’s the same now even in the earlier part of the season. Winning series on a consistent basis is a minimum for a playoff-bound team, and just for a successful ballclub in general. It isn’t expected that the Mariners will sweep everybody, that’s unrealistic and won’t happen with this current roster. What is very possible is winning series, and taking care of business when they need to. An example of that is sweeping the Athletics and taking two of three against these Pirates. Yes, Pittsburgh has seen some struggles, but they are still a good ballclub that sits at second in their division, showed great bat presence in the first game of the series and certainly has some talent. The Mariners have another tough test loading, but they’ve shown on multiple occasions that they can meet the challenge presented to them.
Seattle Mariners first baseman Ty France stretches out to try and get an errant throw from shortstop JP Crawford (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Quick notes
The Mariners picked up their first walk-off win of the 2023 season today with a 6-3 victory, securing a series over the Pirates…today’s win marks the first time the team has been 3 games over .500 this season (28-25).
Seattle is 6-1 through 7 games on the 10-game homestand and has now won 2 consecutive series…they improve to 8-9 in series this season and are now 2-5 in rubber games.
Eugenio Suárez hit a walk-off 3-run home run in the 10th inning…it was his 3rd career walk-off home run (also: 7/8/22 vs. TOR and 9/11/22 vs. ATL) and marks the Mariners first walk-off homerun since Cal Raleigh on 9/30/22 vs. OAK
Julio Rodríguez extended his hitting streak to 7-consecutive games (5/22-c) on a home run in the 1st inning…he went 2-for-5 with 1 home run and 1 RBI in today’s game.
It is his longest hitting streak of the 2023 season and most recent 7-game streak since 9/7/22-9/16/22... Rodríguez’s career high hitting streak is 9 games (last: 6/27/22-7/5/22).
During his hitting streak, Rodríguez is batting .467 (14x30) with 4 doubles, 7 RBI, 2 home runs and 1 hit by pitch… He has also recorded multiple hits in 6 out of the 7 games and leads Mariners hitters in multi-hit games this season with 17.
His home run in the 1st inning had the highest launch angle of any of the home runs in his career so far at 43.0 degrees… His previous career-high launch angle was 39.0 degrees…It also ties the 2nd highest launch angle in T-Mobile Park history (highest: Kyle Seager, 44 degrees on 7/27/21 vs. HOU)
Rodríguez joins 3 other players in the Majors this year with 9+ home runs and 9+ stolen bases (also: Ronald Acuña Jr.-ATL (11 HR, 22 SB), Josh Lowe-TBR (11 HR, 10 SB) and Bobby Witt-KCR (9 HR, 15 SB).
Rodríguez’s lineout in the 5th inning was the hardest hit ball of the day at 112.6 MPH…it’s his 5th hardest hit ball this season (highest: 115.5 MPH on 5/6/23 vs. HOU).
Cal Raleigh went 1-for-4 with 1 home run and 1 RBI today.
Raleigh’s home run launch angle today was also 43.0 degrees and marks a new career-high (previously: 42.0 degrees)…he matched Rodríguez today for the 2nd highest launch angle in T-Mobile Park history.
It was the 2nd time this season he has hit a home run on the first pitch of an at-bat and 7th time in his career.
Jarred Kelenic picked up 1 double and 2 walks (1 IBB)…he has reached safely in 9 out of his last 11 games.
Kelenic now has 25 extra-base hits on the year...entering today he was tied for 4th most extra-base hits in the American League and currently leads all Mariners hitters.
With 14 doubles, he trails only Ty France (15) for most doubles on the team.
J.P. Crawford went 1-for-4 with 2 runs, 1 RBI and 1 walk in today’s game…he continues to lead the Mariners in walks this season with 29.
During the current homestand, Crawford is batting .300 (9x30) with 7 runs, 1 double, 2 home runs, 6 RBI and 2 walks.
In his 10th start of the year, Marco Gonzales threw 5.2 innings and allowed only 3 hits, 1 run (1 ER), 3 walks and struck out 4 over 90 pitches.
Gonzales now has 8 games this season with 5.0 innings pitched and 1-or-fewer home runs allowed…joining George Kirby and Logan Gilbert for 2nd most on the team (most: Luis Castillo, 10).
Today also marked the 3rd time this season Gonzales has not allowed more than 1 earned run in a 5.0+ inning start (also: 4/25/23 @ PHI and 4/8/23 @ CLE).
Today marked the 4th time this season the Mariners have used 7 pitchers in a game (also: 4/30/23 @ TOR, 4/2/23 vs. CLE and 4/9/23 @ CLE).
What’s next?
The Mariners will continue with their ten-game homestand when they begin their final series in the stretch, facing the New York Yankees for three-games. Seattle battles the Bronx Bombers for the first time since the Mariners took two of three games against them last season including a 13-inning thriller. While the Yankees are nine games over .500, they sit at third in the AL East due to the incredibly hot starts from the Tampa Bay Rays and Baltimore Orioles. All three games of the series will have a first pitch time of 6:40PM PST, and Seattle has Bryce Miller on the mound for game one as he looks to continue the historic start to his career.