8/23/22

Mariners 4, Nationals 2

(Seattle, WA) Coming off of their second off day in the last week, the Seattle Mariners were trying to erase the memory of the previous series in Oakland and move on to a quick six game homestand. Robbie Ray took to the mound and was awesome for the Mariners while the bats did enough to start off the homestand with a 4-2 win over the lowly Washington Nationals.

Neither team pushed across the run through the first three innings. Ray didn’t allow a baserunner until a leadoff walk to start the top of the 4th. He had no problem pitching around that and just waited on some run support from the offense. Jesse Winker reached on a leadoff single in the bottom of the 4th to bring up Mitch Haniger. Haniger has hit the ball very well since returning from injury three weeks ago and launched his sixth home run of the season to left field to put Seattle up 2-0.

Robbie Ray took the mound in the top of the 7th with a no-hitter still intact. That no-no wouldn’t last any longer as Joey Maneses continued to make the most of his new opportunity in the nation’s capital and hit his sixth home run to center field to put the Nats on the board and make it 2-1.

Ray’s pitch count was getting high in the 7th put a strikeout of Luke Voit and a Nelson Cruz groundout helped set him up to finish the 7th. Lane Thomas would reach on an infield single despite a tremendous effort by J.P. Crawford at short. That would be the end of the day for Ray who would finish after 6.2 innings only allowing two hits and one run while walking two and striking out seven. Thomas would then steal second, but Andres Muńoz would strikeout Cesar Hernandez to preserve the Mariner lead.

Former Mariner Steve Cishek would come on in relief for the Nats in the bottom of the 7th. Carlos Santana, who recorded his second career bunt base hit earlier in the game, would welcome Cishek to the game with a base hit to left. Eugenio Suarez would then hit a 430-foot bomb over the bullpen in left to give Seattle a 4-1 lead and some breathing room. It would be Suarez’s 23rd home run of the season and third in the last four games.

The score would remain the same headed into the 9th. Paul Sewald took over for the Mariners and the first batter that he faced would snap Sewald’s ten game hitless streak as Joey Maneses hit a double to left on a play where Dylan Moore thought he was close to the wall than he really was. Luke Voit and Nelson Cruz would groundout for the first two outs and move Maneses to third. Lane Thomas would beat the shift with a base hit to right field to make it 4-2 and extend the game. One more batter is all it would take for Sewald to nail this one down as he struck out Cesar Hernandez to give the Mariners the 4-2 victory.

The Mariners (67-56) didn’t gain any ground in any playoff races but due to the win they didn’t lose any ground either. They remain tied with Toronto for the second Wild Card spot while sitting a half game behind Tampa Bay for the top Wild Card spot. Baltimore remains 2.5 games behind Seattle as the first team on the outside looking in. Seattle will look to complete the two-game sweep of Washington (41-83) on Wednesday at 1:10p. George Kirby (5-3, 3.47 ERA) will make his second career interleague start for the M’s as he takes on veteran Anibal Sanchez (0-5, 6.43 ERA) for the Nationals.

Matt’s Takeaway

While the score is a little bit closer than you would like, this was a good game by the Mariners. They got back on track and beat a bad team with their highest paid player getting the job done on the mound. Robbie Ray seems to have figured out whatever was off through the first couple of months. Mitch Haniger is also doing exactly what Jerry Dipoto had hoped when he didn’t trade for a bat at the deadline. The offense is better now than it was before the deadline and Haniger is the reason why. If Kirby can continue his great rookie season, the Mariners should have no problem sweeping the Nats and head into a series with a potential playoff foe in Cleveland with momentum on their side.

Top Performers

Nationals

• Joey Maneses- 2-4, 2B, HR, RBI, 2 R
• Lane Thomas- 2-4, RBI, SB
• Erick Fedde (L, 5-8)- 5 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO

Mariners

• Robbie Ray (W, 10-8)- 6.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO
• Mitch Haniger- 1-4, HR, 2 RBI, R
• Eugenio Suarez- 1-2, HR, 2 RBI, R, BB

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