Mariners find a sprinkle of Chaos Ball, comeback to beat Red Sox and take important series
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – To close out a critical series against a team that they’re battling for an American League Wild Card spot, the Seattle Mariners used a bit of chaos to take the series against the Boston Red Sox. Through five innings, the Mariners had fallen behind the Red Sox as starting pitcher Logan Gilbert had an okay game considering the circumstances, before the Seattle bats got things going. A Cal Raleigh homer in the bottom of the sixth was the match that lit the fire for the Mariners, before a seventh inning that reminded fans of the sort of chaos ball that we’ve seen from this organization over the past two seasons. With the win, Seattle is three games out of a Wild Card spot and five games out of the top spot in the American League West division.
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Logan Gilbert gave the team six innings of three-run ball, before the Mariners bullpen came in to shut down the scoring (Photos by Sage Zipeto)
Gilbert keeps his team in the game
Seattle starting pitcher Logan Gilbert had a unique outing during this ballgame, as he gave up three earned runs on four hits but was able to give the Mariners length as he stretched his performance over six innings. The length was solid from Logan, considering how the Seattle bullpen had been stretched thin over the course of this series against Boston, but Gilbert did deal with a few hiccups in this contest like his performance against the Blue Jays during the last homestand. The first two innings were clean but allowing a walk to Connor Wong in the third inning saw Jarren Duran homer to drive them both in, before Wong doubled in the fifth inning to be driven in by a Masataka Yoshida single. Three runs against aren’t bad by any means, but the three walks and hard contract that Logan allowed are things he wants to improve upon.
Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh blasted a two-run homer to get the scoring started for his team (Photo by Sage Zipeto)
Cal CONTINUES to crush
Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh continues to hit the ball well, forming a tandem with Tom Murphy behind the plate that is bringing incredible value for Seattle when it comes to what they’re doing at the plate. Murphy recorded a three-hit game in today’s win, with three singles and representing the teams fourth run overall during a four-run seventh inning, but Cal clobbered another big homer that got his team’s offense moving forward after looking largely ineffective against Boston starter Kutter Crawford. Crawford exited after completing five innings, and that’s when Seattle was able to get things rolling as Eugenio Suarez singled before Raleigh blasted a sinker at the bottom of the zone (the tenth pitch of the at-bat, no less) into right field to cut the Red Sox lead to just a run.
Boston Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford kept the Seattle Mariners offense at bay through five innings, before the Mariners offense came alive in the innings that followed (Photos by Sage Zipeto)
Chaos ball, re-engage
After Cal Raleigh continued his dominance and terrorization of the American League East and the Boston Red Sox, the Mariners seemed to find the switch on the chaos machine hiding deep inside of T-Mobile Park. I will not confirm nor deny if it’s real (for legal reasons, this is a joke), but Seattle’s seventh inning was as wacky as it can get as the Mariners plated four runs and took a three-run lead that they’d never look back from. The first three Mariners batters reached as Dominic Canzone drew a walk, Tom Murphy singled (his third of the day), Cade Marlowe pinch hit for Dylan Moore to single. A JP Crawford strikeout, which is somewhat rare, put a little doubt into the minds of the Mariners fans in the crowd of 37,942 at T-Mobile Park, but Julio Rodriguez’s single helped to move the line along. Eugenio Suarez singled after to continue that line moving, and after a Cal Raleigh pop out, Julio and Eugenio were up to no good.
During Ty France’s plate appearance, Eugenio Suarez started to run towards second base, but it wasn’t for him to simply steal second. Julio Rodriguez had bolted down the third base line, stealing his 25th bag of the year in home plate. The Mariners had successfully pulled off a double steal to get Julio to steal home, an idea from Eugenio Suarez that he had pitched. In addition to the fact that the Mariners got the run across, Eugenio was also happy to be credited with his second steal of the season.
Quick notes
Seattle won today’s rubber match against the Boston Red Sox by a 6-3 score giving them the series win.
The Mariners now have a 7-1-1 series record since June 30 and are 14-9 over their last 23 games.
Seattle matches a season-high water mark of 4 games above the .500 mark (2nd time this season).
The Mariners opened their scoring in the 6th inning after catcher Cal Raleigh homered to right field scoring Eugenio Suárez on the play.
Raleigh homered on the 10th pitch of the at-bat making Seattle one of 4 teams this season with multiple 10+ pitch at-bat home runs, along with OAK (4), COL (2) and SF (2)…other: AJ Pollock.
The scoring continued in the 7th inning after Cade Marlowe hit a pinch-hit single to score Dominic Canzone.
Marlowe’s single was the first game-tying pinch-hit in the 7th inning or later for Seattle this season and the first since Luis Torrens, Sept. 29, 2022 vs. Texas.
Julio Rodríguez extended his career-high on-base streak to 27 games after he singled in the 7th inning to drive in Tom Murphy.
Julio’s 27-game on base streak (7/1-c) is the longest active on-base streak in the Major Leagues and is the longest Mariners on-base streak since 2016.
Rodríguez stole home in the 7th inning for his 25th stolen base of the season and the 50th of his career…he is the first Mariners player to steal home since Mallex Smith on May 27, 2019.
With his single in the 3rd inning, Tom Murphy extended his hitting streak to 6 games…during this streak Murphy is batting .455 (10x22) with 3 runs, 3 doubles, 2 home runs and 5 RBI.
Murphy finished the game going 3-for-4 with 3 singles…this was Murphy’s second 3-hit game this season and his 7th of his career…his last 3-hit game came on June 6 against the Washington Nationals.
This was Murphy’s 10th multi-hit game this season.
Eugenio Suárez extended his RBI streak to 8 games after he singled in the 7th inning allowing José Caballero to score…this is the longest active streak in the Majors and tied for the longest streak overall this season with Nolan Arenado-STL and Justin Turner-BOS.
He doubled in the 6th inning for his second hit of the game…this was his second consecutive multi-hit game and his 3rd in the last 4 games.
Suárez now has 21 multi-hit games on the season.
He finished the day going 3-for-4 with 1 run, 1 double, 1 stolen base and 1 RBI.
J.P. Crawford drew a walk in the 3rd inning to extend his on-base streak to 8 games…during this streak Crawford is batting .286 (8x28) with 4 doubles, 1 home run, 1 RBI, 8 walks and 1 hit-by-pitch.
Teoscar Hernández singled in the 5th inning…he has now reached base safely in 6 straight games and has hit safely in 4 straight.
Starting pitcher Logan Gilbert went 6.0 innings and allowed 3 runs on 5 hits (1 home run) and 3 walks with 5 strikeouts on 104 pitches, 65 strikes.
Gilbert now has 12 quality starts on the season.
The Mariners now have 53 quality starts this season, 2nd-most in the Majors behind Minnesota (54).
This is Gilbert’s 4th straight game with 5+ strikeouts.
Seattle relievers Matt Brash, Gabe Speier, Justin Topa and Andrés Muñoz combined for 3.0 innings pitched and allowed just 1 hit with 4 strikeouts.
What’s next?
Following this big series win (and successful three-game homestand), the Mariners will now head out on the road as they look to continue gaining ground in the American League Wild Card race. Seattle will head out on the road for a four-game series and road trip, against the Los Angeles Angels. The Angels have decided to go all in on this season, not trading superstar Shohei Ohtani and buying at the MLB Trade Deadline in hopes to make a playoff run and keep Ohtani for the long term. The Mariners, a team that will look to sign Ohtani this offseason, has jumped over the Angels in the division and will need a successful series to keep climbing in the standings. Game one of the series is tomorrow, Thursday, August 3rd, with a first pitch time of 6:38PM PST.