The Man: Teoscar Hernandez comes up clutch again as Mariners take their game of the year candidate over Blue Jays
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – The Seattle Mariners have completed a series win over the Toronto Blue Jays, and they look like the sort of team we’d hope they’d be when Opening Day came around. While Logan Gilbert struggled one the fifth inning rolled around, despite looking sharp early, the Mariners offense found the sort of rhythm that we haven’t seen from them all year long. Through these two wins over the Blue Jays, Seattle just may be finding the groove they’d needed to thrust themself back into the playoff picture. We’ll hold our breath, but if these are any indication, the Cruel Summer will soon turn for the Mariners.
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Logan Gilbert was rolling before a rough fifth inning, which included a homer from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Vladdy also recorded a double and scored against Gilbert, in the fourth inning. (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Gilbert starts strong, loses grasp towards end of outing
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher was solid for the team throughout the first four innings of the game, slicing and dicing through this hard-hitting Toronto Blue Jays lineup as his opponent on the mound Kevin Gausman did the same to the Mariners. Retiring the first six batters he faced and getting the strike outs rolling, Gilbert had to work out of a jam in the third and then allowed his first run of the day in the fourth as Toronto got a big double from Vladdy Guerrero Jr and a single from Matt Chapman to score his teammate. That fifth inning is where it gets ugly, as Kevin Kiermaier led off with a solo homer before George Springer kept the ball rolling with a single before Brandon Belt and Vladdy went back-to-back, getting four runs in the blink of an eye and just two frames after Seattle’s three-run inning.
As expected, Logan Gilbert relied heavily on his fastball in this outing, throwing it 52% of the time today. Following the heater came the slider and knuckle curve, both getting considerable usage, with the splitter that he talked about in the offseason only getting used eleven times today. Every pitch he threw today except for the knuckle curve saw an uptick in velocity, while every pitch he threw except the heater saw an uptick in spin rate. In terms of what pitches that the Blue Jays got to, his fastball and knuckle curve weren’t the primary culprits. Toronto made six of their base hits against Gilbert’s slider and splitter, pitches he’d worked on somewhat heavily this Spring Training. In some good news, Logan got the Blue Jays to ground out nine times, with only two-line drives against. But in terms of elevating the ball, Toronto had no problem as they hit seven of his pitches as “fly balls,” with six of them being “hard hit.” Long story short, Gilbert was having a solid inning, but mistakes seemed to compound during that fifth inning. A learning experience for sure, and a nod to continue to work on his off-speed.
The Seattle Mariners hit three solo home runs in the third inning of their 9-8 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday, July 23rd, 2023 (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Home run derby, continued
As mentioned, when discussing Logan Gilbert, this game was full of homers across the board for both teams. Seven home runs in total were hit between the Blue Jays and Mariners, with Cal Raleigh hitting two of them to continue terrorizing Toronto, while they all came within a period between the third and fifth inning. Unsure if there are any “juiced balls” to blame for this considering that it’s the middle of the series and MLB doesn’t typically pay much attention to the Mariners anyway, both teams were able to make solid contact on the opposing starter. As previously mentioned, the Blue Jays got their three homers in that fifth inning, which almost seemed to be a direct response to the Mariners' three solo homers hit in the third inning.
Seattle seems to have found out to hit against Toronto starter Kevin Gausman, dating back to the game two start of the Wild Card series last season. Things started when Cal Raleigh led the third off with a solo homer to right field, transferring power to his teammate right after him in the starting lineup as Dylan Moore blasted a deep shot into left field. While the next two batters went down for outs, Julio Rodriguez said that he wanted in on the party as he slammed a no-doubt solo homer into left field to make it a trifecta of homers in that third inning. The seventh accounted for homer of the game and fourth for Seattle came two innings later, as Cal Raleigh continues to show his disdain for O Canada with a second homer in this ballgame (Another solo shot to lead off the inning), making it six homers in Raleigh’s last six games against the Blue Jays.
Seattle gets the last punch in
While the Mariners offense staggered for the innings following that third, outside of Raleigh’s solo shot, a jolt of lightning seemed to hit the Seattle bats when the seventh inning rolled around. Perhaps the results of the Hydro Challenge, where a bolt of lightning has hit the winning boat in the last few games, seems to have jump started the Mariners as they rattled off four hits for five total runs off relievers Nate Pearson and Yimi Garcia of the Blue Jays. It started with Ty France getting hit by a pitch, and despite Cal Raleigh’s popout to Toronto shortstop Bo Bichette, Seattle kept the ball rolling. Dylan Moore doubled for his second extra base hit of the day, Kolten Wong lined a single into right field to score France, before JP Crawford came up BIG. Captain Craw lined a double to score both Moore and Wong and tie the game up at seven runs each.
The Mariners were not yet finished with their symphony of swings, as Julio Rodriguez took a pitch off his body to get on base before Teoscar Hernandez got to the plate. Last night’s hero continues to terrorize Toronto and despite claiming that there isn’t any Bad Blood with his former team, his bat says otherwise. Hernandez slammed a double to score Julio and JP to give the Mariners a two-run lead and once again make him responsible for the winning runs against the Blue Jays in back-to-back nights. Hernandez’s bat since summer has started has been massive for this Seattle offense, and if the Mariners can produce around him, Seattle will be able to get the sort of rhythm that they need to make a real difference in their season.
‘Pen report
In their second game of the series against the Blue Jays, the Mariners had to go a bit deeper into their bullpen than they likely wanted to, especially considering that they’ve got young Bryan Woo pitching in tomorrow’s series/homestand finale. Seattle deployed five relievers in this ballgame leaving three of their relievers left who will have had at least one day of rest when tomorrow’s game comes around. Outside of a few runs that came off Matt Brash in the seventh inning and the one that Toronto got off Justin Topa in the top of the ninth (had the heart beating a bit there), the Mariners relievers got their job done and minimized any damage that was left in their bats during this absolute slug fest between the two teams.
First in relief came Gabe Speier, who was only able to get one out before Matt Brash had to come in and finish the sixth. Brash himself got into some trouble in the seventh, allowing one hit and a walk as the Blue Jays played some small ball offense to further their lead right before the offensive explosion that the Mariners had in the seventh inning. When Seattle wasn’t happy with how they were getting through that inning and wanted to make sure they could minimize any sort of further damage, they called upon freshly (just that morning) recalled Isaiah Campbell to get the final out, which he did after allowing a hit and walk. To close things out, Andres Munoz and Justin Topa came into the game and despite the three hits that the Blue Jays got against Topa in the top of the ninth, the reliever they call “Big Loaf” got the final three outs to put the cap on an absolutely wild contest.
Quick notes
The Mariners secured their 22nd comeback win of the season, rallying from a 7-4 deficit in the 7th inning.
The Mariners now trail Toronto by only 3.5 games for the 3rd American League Wild Card spot.
Today’s win secures Seattle’s 14th series win of the season…the Mariners look to record their 4th series sweep of the season tomorrow.
The Mariners are now 6-0 vs. the Blue Jays over their last 6 matchups in Seattle and 8-1 over their last 9 matchups in Seattle.
The Mariners hit 3 home runs in the 3rd inning (Cal Raleigh, Dylan Moore and Julio Rodríguez), their most in any inning this season (last:8/3/22 @ NYY).
The Mariners and Blue Jays are the first teams to each record a 3+ HR inning in the same game since Aug. 19, 2018 (Royals & White Sox).
Teoscar Hernández has driven in the game-winning RBI in each game of the Mariners current 3-game winning streak (7/20-c) his 2-run double in the 7th inning today gave the Mariners a 9-7 lead.
In his last 42 games since June 2, Hernández is hitting .270 with 23 runs, 10 doubles, 1 triple, 7 home runs, 27 RBI and 16 walks while getting on base at a .339 clip and slugging .478 for a .817 OPS.
Cal Raleigh hit a pair of solo home runs to record his 3rd multi-home run game of the season (last: 5/15 at BOS).
Dating back to the beginning of the 2022 Postseason, Raleigh has hit 6 home runs over his last 6 games against the Blue Jays.
Over 13 career games against Toronto (including Postseason), he holds a .326 (14x43) average with 12 runs scored, 1 double, 8 home runs, 16 RBI and 2 walks, while reaching base at a .348 clip and slugging .907 with a 1.255 OPS).
J.P. Crawford tied the game 7-7 with a 2-run double in the bottom of the 7th inning.
The game-tying RBI was J.P.’s third game-tying RBI in the 7th inning-or-later this season (also: 4/30 at TOR & 5/6 vs. HOU).
Dylan Moore followed Raleigh’s home run in the third inning a home run of his own…Raleigh and Moore’s HRs were the Mariners 5th back-to-back pair of HRs this season (last: Raleigh & Teoscar Hernández, 6/22 at NYY).
Julio Rodríguez hit his 14th HR of the season in the 3rd inning, it was his first extra-base hit since July 7.
Rodríguez’s home run snapped a stretch of 21 consecutive games without a home run (6/25-7/21), the longest home run drought of his career.
He also found base in the 7th inning after being hit-by-pitch.
Kolten Wong recorded his 1st stolen base of the season in the 7th inning…he’d gotten on base with an RBI single.
Through 5.0 innings pitched, Logan Gilbert allowed 8 hits, 5 runs (5 earned runs), 3 home runs, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts.
It was the 1st time Gilbert allowed 3+ home runs in an inning during his career and first time of the season to allow 3 HR in a game.
He has allowed multiple HR in just 4 of his 20 outings this season.
Seattle Mariners hitting coach Jarret DeHart was ejected from the game in the Seventh inning
What’s next?
Following this game two and series victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, the Seattle Mariners will finish out their series against their enemies from Canada as well as their ten game homestand tomorrow, July 23rd. First pitch, like today’s ballgame, is at 1:10PM PST as young Bryan Woo gets the ball in a big spot with his bullpen taxed. The Blue Jays will throw out Alek Manoah, who is infamously known for saying that “Pressure is something you put in tires” prior to the team's loss to the Mariners in game one of the Wild Card series last season. It’s a big game for the Mariners even though they have already won the series, as Seattle looks to continue climbing back into the playoff picture with this Toronto team in their way.