9/2/22

Mariners 6, Guardians 1

(Cleveland, OH) 21 years ago was the last time that the Seattle Mariners made the playoffs. The 2022 version of this team look like they have every intention of ending that drought and they are rolling at the right time. On Friday night, the Mariners continued their winning ways with their fifth straight win as they took out the AL Central leading Cleveland Guardians 6-1 in game one of the three-game series.

It felt like the Mariners had the advantage before the game even started. It was announced before the game started that the scheduled starting pitcher for Cleveland, Zach Plesac was placed on the 15-Day IL with a broken hand. The cause of the injury? That happened at T-Mobile Park last weekend when Plesac would give up a home run to Jake Lamb. Plesac punched the mound and now it looks like he will miss a good chunk of the stretch run for Cleveland as they try to win the division.

Getting the start instead was Cody Morris who made his major league debut in the game. There would be no welcome gifts from the Mariners as Julio Rodriguez singled to lead off the game. Two batters later, Mitch Haniger drove one to deep center that would get down for extra bases. Rodriguez scored from first and Haniger had an RBI double to give Seattle the early 1-0 lead. It was the third straight game where the Mariners scored in the opening inning.

In the top of the 2nd, Morris would give up the first home run of his young career. Cal Raleigh would hit a screaming line drive over the wall in right field for a solo home run. It was Raleigh’s 20th home run of the season as he became just the third Mariner catcher to hit 20+ home runs in a single season joining Mike Zunino and Omar Narvaez. The line drive homer made it 2-0 Mariners.

Seattle wouldn’t be done in the 2nd. It looked like Cleveland would end the inning after Julio Rodriguez hit a grounder to Guardian shortstop Amed Rosario. Rosario would boot the ball for an error allowing Rodriguez to reach with two outs. Ty France would then walk on four pitches to bring up Mitch Haniger. Mitch would do what he did in the first as he doubled down the left field line to score Rodriguez to capitalize on the Cleveland error. Seattle found themselves up 3-0 after two innings.

Luis Castillo continued a dominant stretch of starting pitching for the Mariners. Cleveland would get one runner to second base in Castillo’s six innings of work. While the strikeouts weren’t there for Castillo, he was hitting his spots and drawing a lot of weak contact. A lot of ground balls and infield pop ups helped Castillo pitch six scoreless innings allowing five hits, just one walk and four strikeouts. Mariners starting pitchers have allowed three runs or fewer in ten consecutive games.

The M’s would double their lead in the top of the 6th and it would be a familiar face doing so. Carlos Santana drew a leadoff walk and Adam Frazier would follow with a base hit to center to put runners on the corners with nobody out. Cal Raleigh then stepped up and hit a fly ball that would get way out of the park for a three-run shot. The 424-foot blast blew it open to make it 6-0 Mariners.

One Castillo would give way to another as Diego Castillo came in to pitch the bottom of the 7th. Richie Palacios would welcome him to the game with a double to give the Guardians their best chance to score. After a flyout to center, Will Benson would sink a line drive to center field for a base hit. Palacios would get a stop sign at third, but Julio Rodriguez would throw wide of home plate and that allowed Palacios to move up and score on the E8 to put Cleveland on the board at 6-1. Castillo would get Steven Kwan to fly out and Amed Rosario to groundout to get out of trouble and minimize the damage.

Matt Festa was the man tasked with getting the last six outs for the Mariners. He would not have any trouble in the 8th with a 1-2-3 inning against the middle of the Cleveland order. The 9th would be a little tougher. Oscar Gonzalez singled to get the inning started. Richie Palacios would make things easier as he hit a ground ball to Adam Frazier at second to start a 4-6-3 double play and put Cleveland down to their last out. Tyler Freeman extended the game with a pinch-hit single, but Will Benson would strikeout swinging to finish off the Mariners fifth consecutive win 6-1.

Seattle (74-58) now sit 16 games over .500 in the final full month of the MLB season. Everyone else in the AL Wild Card race also won on Friday so Seattle remains tied with Tampa Bay for the top spot two games ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays. The upstart Baltimore Orioles are on the outside looking in a game and a half behind Toronto and 3.5 behind Seattle and Tampa Bay. The Guardians (68-62) still sit atop the American League Central division just one game ahead of the Minnesota Twins. The two playoff hopefuls continue their series on Saturday at 4:15p on FOX. Robbie Ray (11-8, 3.58 ERA) looks to build off his dominant month of August for the Mariners as he takes on Xzavion Curry (0-0, 5.40 ERA) for Cleveland.

Matt’s Takeaway

This team is rolling like they were in July in every area of the game. The bullpen has just been sensational almost all year long. The rotation is clicking right along and pitching with complete confidence every single night. The bats have also woken up as the Mariners have outscored their opponents 31-7 over their current five game winning streak. With the Rays having a much tougher schedule and dealing with some injuries, this team is primed to end the drought and host a three-game series in the Wild Card round. Move over Lumen Field. T-Mobile Park is the star of the Seattle sports world right now.

Notable Performences

Mariners

• Cal Raleigh- 2-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 R
• Mitch Haniger- 2-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI
• Luis Castillo (W, 6-5)- 6 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO

Guardians

• Josh Naylor- 2-4
• Richie Palacios- 1-4, 2B, R
• Cody Morris (L, 0-1)- 2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO

Updates

• Off the field on Friday, Mariners starting pitcher George Kirby was named the American League Rookie of the Month for August. Kirby dominated in August going 4-0 in 29.1 innings with an ERA of 2.15. The strikeout to walk ratio is really impressive as he walked only three batters in August while striking out 34! The Mariners rotation is set up to be very good for a very long time.

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