Flair for the dramatic: Down to the wire win over Royals pushes Mariners to top of AL West
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – August 26th, 2003 was the last time that the Seattle Mariners held first place in the American League West this late into the season. With tonight’s win, that featured late insurance runs and a bases loaded strikeout by Andres Munoz to finish off the game, the Mariners have reached the top of the division once again thanks to a Texas Rangers loss earlier in the day and this victory. Just as they had scraped and clawed in the series back in Kansas City, the Royals weren’t about to let Seattle have anything the easy way. It was a back-and-forth affair, with the hot hitting Kansas City lineup hanging around, but key hitting performances from stars like Eugenio Suarez and JP Crawford made sure that the Mariners weren’t going to walk away from this series opener empty handed.
Tough second inning ends Miller Time
Mariners starting pitcher Bryce Miller came out of the gates firing away, topping out at 97 MPH with his fastball in the first inning to retire the side to look somewhat dominant to start this game. Then the second inning came around, and things changed a bit as the Royals aggressive approach that made them such a pesky team to attack on the road in Kansas City saw them get three runs against Bryce. Four hits from the Royals and a blown pickoff attempt by Bryce resulted in those three runs, before Miller was able to settle back into his game and work two more scoreless frames to end his ballgame. That second inning did shorten his day, as his pitch count got driven up by the 30+ pitches he threw, but it’s a learning experience that should make him better going forward.
Bryce is tasked with having thrown five types of pitches: his fastball, a sweeper, a slider, a sinker, and a single changeup. He saw an increase in velocity on that fastball with decreases on the rest of those pitches, but only by a small margin. Spin rate was up in his sinker and slider but decreased in the rest of those pitches. Bryce generated 15 whiffs on the day, with 14 of them coming from that fastball of his. The Royals only put eleven of his 83 total pitches into fair territory, and a mere five of them were hit hard. The second inning is the reason why this outing was shortened, as otherwise we could’ve seen Miller go six innings.
The P in JP stands for power
Seattle shortstop JP Crawford got the party at T-Mobile Park in front of a sellout crowd of 45,175 going with a solo homer on the first pitch that he saw in the bottom of the first inning. His Mariners teammates kept the party rolling after that, as they tacked on a second run that inning on a Cal Raleigh singled that scored Julio Rodriguez, before JP ended up with a three-hit night. There were some who called for Crawford to be moved down in the lineup as he eased his way back into things after suffering a concussion on the last homestand, but JP seemed to wash away any sort of silly argument like that with his performance at the plate tonight.
Outside of JP and Eugenio, the Mariners offense was unique in the ways that they continued to produce runs. In the bottom of the fifth inning, right fielder Teoscar Hernandez was able to score from third on a wild pitch that Royals catcher Salvador Perez couldn’t handle cleanly, with Teo just getting underneath the tag at home plate. A Josh Rojas single later that inning scored Dominic Canzone from second to increase the Seattle lead by three at that point, before Matt Brash surrendered a two-run homer to Kyle Isbel. At the end of the day, the key factor that I take away from this game from the Mariners offense is small ball. Seattle racked up the hits when they needed to, keeping the line moving and adding more runs throughout the course of the ballgame. That’s winning baseball, and that’s the formula that’s been helping them to climb the standings.
Eugenio Suarez: Bringer of Good Vibes
He’s not particularly having the best year at the plate, and we know he’s very much a boom or bust kind of guy and his glove has been doing more of the talking this season anyway, but Eugenio Suarez’s performance at the plate in recent months is very much part of the reason why the Mariners are climbing and climbing as the season rolls into the home stretch. In recent memory as well, Suarez has come up clutch for Seattle when they needed to tack runs on or get the lead back, particularly the series finale in Chicago when his two-RBI single gave the Mariners their first lead of the ballgame. Tonight, Eugenio was able to replicate some of that clutch hitting ability as he drove in two runs in the bottom of the fourth with a bases loaded single and a double in the bottom of the eighth drove in JP Crawford to give Seattle a two-run lead. His clubhouse presence, gold-glove level defense, and now clutch hitting are making Eugenio a huge part of the Mariners current surge up the standings.
‘Pen report
Perhaps it’s me picking out things from a satisfying result, but the Mariners emptied the tank a bit here when it comes to how many bullpen arms they deployed in tonight’s win. Isaiah Campbell, Gabe Speier, Matt Brash, Tayler Saucedo, Justin Topa, and Andres Munoz were all deployed in this ballgame after Miller was only able to go the four innings. Only two of the four relievers that Seattle sent into the game allowed hits, and one reliever was responsible for the two runs that the bullpen allowed. Matt Brash had a tough outing as he surrendered two runs on three hits, after he was coming off a stretch of games where Mariners manager Scott Servais said that the team was actively trying to give him some rest. Perhaps, given the workload that Brash has taken on this year, that break may have messed with his timing a bit, as Matt struggled in this game. Otherwise, the bullpen was largely solid, and even despite some tense moments, Andres Munoz slammed the door shut with the bases loaded and recorded his ninth save of the season.
Job not finished
It’s a great feeling for this Mariners team to be in this spot, let alone the franchise itself, as the 2023 season gets into the clutch moments. The expectations were high for Seattle coming into Opening Day, with some pegging the team as a division favorite and the Mariners themselves posting a video where the goal of “winning it all” was circled in a big way. So, some expectations from the outside and some from your own organization, but that’s beside the point. It’s all excellent and exciting that you got to this point, but the job isn’t finished, and Seattle has their own world in their hands. The Mariners control their destiny moving forward and can ensure that they clinch this division if they continue to play the winning brand of baseball that we’ve seen from them since July 1st. It won’t be particularly easy from this point forward per say, as Seattle still has the upcoming road trip that will be tough and that final homestand on the season pits them against the Rangers and Astros, the two teams vying for the division title and now their playoff lives as well, but it’s very much in the Mariners control. They’re in the drivers seat, they simply cannot let off the gas.
Quick notes
The Mariners beat the Royals 7-5 to open the homestand.
Tonight’s sellout crowd of 45,175 marks the 4th sellout at T-Mobile Park this season.
Seattle has won 9 of its last 10 games.
With the win, Seattle moves into a tie with the Texas Rangers for 1st place in the AL West.
8 of the 9 players in the Mariners starting lineup hit safely today… 5 players recorded 2+ hits and 3 players recorded 3+ hits.
It was the 7th time this season that 5 or more Mariners have recorded multiple hits in a game.
J.P Crawford hit his 4th leadoff home run of the season off Seattle’s first pitch to begin a 2-run 1st inning…it was his 7th career leadoff home run and 11th home run of the season.
Tonight was Crawford first multi-hit game since returning from the IL on Aug. 21…he went 3-for-4 with a homer, 2 singles, 3 runs and a walk.
Crawford’s 3 runs tied his season-high (also: 7/30 @AZ).
With his 74th walk of the season tonight, Crawford moves to 2nd in the AL in walks.
Since August 16, Cal Raleigh is batting .344 with 11 hits, 3 doubles, 4 home runs, 12 RBI and 6 runs…he’s gotten on base at a .353 clip while slugging .813 for a 1.166 OPS during that span.
Tonight was the 3rd time this season Raleigh has recorded 3 hits (also: 8/21 and 5/15) …he went 3-for-5 with 2 singles, a double and an RBI.
Among AL catchers, Raleigh ranks 1st in extra-base hits (45).
Dominic Canzone recorded his 2nd multi-hit game since joining Seattle on Aug. 1 tonight… he went 2-for-4 with two singles.
Since Aug. 8, Canzone is batting .286 (10x38) with 3 doubles, 2 home runs and a .804 OPS.
Eugenio Suárez extended his hitting streak to 7 games with a single, a 2-RBI single and a double.
Tonight was his 6th 3-hit game this season.
In August, Julio Rodríguez is batting .409 (38x93) with 14 runs, 9 doubles, 4 home runs, 23 RBI, 11 stolen bases and a 1.089 OPS.
Teoscar Hernández is batting .347 (34x98) with 10 runs, 8 doubles, 3 home runs, 11 RBI and a .906 OPS since July 29.
In his 19th start of the season, Bryce Miller threw 4.0 innings and allowed 6 hits, 3 runs (3 earned) and 1 walk.
He recorded 6 strikeouts across 83 pitches and 62 strikes thrown.
The Mariners bullpen (Isaiah Campbell, Gabe Spier, Matt Brash, Taylor Saucedo, Justin Topa and Andrés Muñoz) combined for 5.0 innings.
Isaiah Campbell is the 4th pitcher in franchise history to win at least their first 4 decisions in the Majors, joining Eric O’Flaherty (7), Julio Mateo (5) and Penn Murfee (4)…he is also the first player to do so within his first 15 career games in franchise history.
What’s next?
Following tonight’s win with a 7:10PM PST first pitch on Apple TV+, the Mariners will be back to normal on Root Sports, but in not normal fashion they’ll be playing back-to-back 1:10PM PST games on the weekend. Tomorrow, Saturday, August 26th will see the Mariners aim for another series victory as they host game two against the Royals. Seattle is scheduled to have Logan Gilbert on the mound to duel off against Kansas City’s Jordan Lyle’s, and the Mariners will be looking for Gilbert to unleash his “Walter” pitching alter ego against this talented Royals lineup. Although they currently hold the top spot in the American League West, Seattle must continue to win ballgames and take series victory to keep that spot and eventually clinch the division itself. While Texas is sliding, the Rangers possess more than enough talent to regain their top spot.