8/25/22

Mariners 3, Guardians 1

(Seattle, WA) If the season ended today, the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Guardians would meet in the best of three Wild Card series in Cleveland. While the season obviously doesn’t end today, many eyes were drawn to a potential playoff preview in game one of a four-game series in Seattle. Both teams would get out of the gate fast but neither would finish strong offensively in the opener as the Mariners’ Marco Gonzales outdueled the Guardians’ Triston McKenzie in the opener to give Seattle a 3-1 win.

Marco didn’t start off strong in the top of the 1st. Steven Kwan would double on the first pitch of the ball game and move to third after a single by Amed Rosario as the ball stopped right on the chalk on the third baseline. One of the best hitters in baseball was up next in Jose Ramirez and Gonzales would get him to hit a ground ball to Adam Frazier at second. The Mariners would get Rosario at second, but a collision at first between Ty France and Jose Ramirez allowed Ramirez to reach and left Ty France in some pain. Kwan would score on the grounder to give Cleveland a 1-0 lead. Cal Raleigh would throw out Ramirez trying to steal second to help end the inning.

The Mariners wanted to join in on the 1st inning fun and did so in the bottom half of the inning. Julio Rodriguez would walk to leadoff the inning and Jesse Winker followed with a base hit to center. The longest tenured Seattle Mariner would step up next in Mitch Haniger and he would be the one to come up with the big hit. Haniger would send a high fly ball into the bullpen in left center for his seventh home run of the season. Three batters into the bottom of the 1st and the Mariners had taken a 3-1 lead.

There would be bad news in the top of the 2nd for Seattle. Will Benson would hit a ground ball to J.P. Crawford at shortstop and the throw would get Benson. However, Benson’s cleat would catch Ty France again which would cause the Mariner first baseman to leave the game. The Mariners announced that France left with a calf bruise.

The story then turned into really good pitching and defense from both sides. Gonzales and McKenzie allowed a combined three baserunners from innings 2-6. Both got help from their defenses as well as Will Benson made a nice sliding catch and J.P. Crawford showed off his Gold Glove defense with a fantastic glove flip to first base. The two starters went a combined 12 innings, allowed just seven hits, four runs, only walked three and struck out eight. It was a great preview of what will be a great weekend of pitching.

Matt Brash would get into some trouble for the Mariners in the top of the 8th. A leadoff single by Richie Palacios was quickly followed by a pop fly and a line out for two quick outs. Amed Rosario would beat the shift with a base hit to right to put the tying run on first with the go-ahead run in Jose Ramirez at the plate. Scott Servais would decide to bring in his young flamethrower in Andres Muñoz to try to preserve the lead. A seven-pitch battle would ensue, but it would end with a nasty slider to strikeout Jose Ramirez and keep the score 3-1.

After the Mariners left the bases loaded in the 8th, Andres Muñoz would come back out for the 9th inning to try to finish things off. He would get off to a great start by striking out both Oscar Gonzalez and Josh Naylor for two quick outs. Muñoz then got ahead of Andres Gimenez 0-2 and would get Gimenez to hit a groundball up the middle to Eugenio Suarez who would field it and throw Gimenez out to give the Mariners a 3-1 win.

With everyone else in the top four of the American League Wild Card standings also getting the win on Thursday, the Mariners (68-57) did not gain any separation or ground on any other teams in the race. Seattle sits a game and a half behind Tampa Bay and a game behind Toronto. They still sit 2.5 games ahead of Baltimore for the final playoff spot. The Mariners will continue their series with the Cleveland Guardians (66-57) on Friday at 7:10p exclusively on Apple TV. Logan Gilbert (10-5, 3.52 ERA) will look for his first win since July 5th as he takes on former Cy Young winner Shane Bieber (8-7, 3.10 ERA) for Cleveland.

Matt’s Takeaway

While it would be nice to score more than three runs, this was playoff baseball. Runs are not easy to come by in the postseason against very good pitchers like those that Cleveland have. Marco stepped up in another big game and got the job done. It always feels like the bigger the game, the better Marco Gonzales performs. It was nice to see the guys come back out after a rough game on Wednesday and right the ship. With what will be a very electric crowd this weekend due to Ichiro going into the Mariners Hall of Fame and the massive news of the Julio Rodriguez extension, this could turn out to be the weekend that the Mariners start running away with a playoff spot.

Top Performers

Guardians

• Triston McKenzie (L, 9-10)- 6 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO
• Amed Rosario- 2-4
• Steven Kwan- 1-4, 2B, R

Mariners

• Marco Gonzales (W, 9-12)- 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO
• Mitch Haniger- 2-4, HR, 3 RBI, R
• Jesse Winker- 1-3, R, BB

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