9/3/22

Mariners 4, Guardians 0

(Cleveland, OH) When the Mariners play on FOX, good things don’t happen. Most notably, Philip Humber threw a perfect game against the Mariners back in 2012. More recently, the Mariners lost games to both the Texas Rangers and Oakland Athletics. Seattle would put up its five-game winning streak against a tough stretch of games on FOX. The result? That would be a sixth straight win for the M’s with this one coming as a shutout over Cleveland 4-0.

In the top of the 1st, the Mariners continued another streak. For the fourth consecutive game, the Mariners scored in the first frame. This time it would be courtesy of Ty France. The Mariners first baseman hit a high fly ball to left field that would stay fair for a solo home run. France had his 18th home run of the season, and the Mariners had a 1-0 lead.

Once again, it didn’t take long for the Mariners to add on to their lead. In the top of the 2nd, Cal Raleigh reached on a one out walk. J.P. Crawford hit a groundball to All-Star third baseman Jose Ramirez. Ramirez would try to cut down Raleigh at second but wouldn’t be able to get the ball out of his glove cleanly. The error had runners on first and second with one out. Julio Rodriguez then loaded the bases with a single, but a Ty France pop up to second would make it bases loaded with two outs. Mitch Haniger showed great plate discipline with a four pitch walk to score a run and make it 2-0. Eugenio Suarez looked to break it open with a hard line drive but it would be right at Ramirez at third to end the inning.

Plate discipline continued to be a great asset for Seattle in the top of the 5th. After a quick out number one, the next three Mariners would draw a walk to load the bases. Nick Sandlin would come in to try to put out the fire for the Guardians. Cal Raleigh wouldn’t let him get Cleveland off the hook. The Mariner catcher lined a base hit to right to score Jesse Winker and make it 3-0. It would be another walk for J.P. Crawford to drive in another run and make it 4-0.

The Cleveland Guardians don’t strikeout very much. In fact, no team in baseball has fewer strikeouts than the first-place team in the AL Central. Therefore, it was no surprise that both Luis Castillo on Friday and Robbie Ray on Saturday saw their strikeout numbers lower than usual. Both would be dominant still as Ray continued a blazing hot stretch of Mariners starting pitching. Ray trusted his defense even with runners on and just forced Cleveland batters to put the ball in play. It would be a great strategy as Ray went six scoreless innings while allowing six hits with no walks and three strikeouts. Since the beginning of August, the Mariner lefty now has an ERA of 1.38 in 39 innings.

The bullpen took over for the final three innings as the Mariners offense couldn’t add on to their four-run lead. It was the same old, same old for the Seattle bullpen. Matt Brash allowed a couple runners on in the 7th but a phenomenal play by the Mariner rookie helped him escape without any damage done. Andres Muñoz would have a nice and easy 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the 8th.

Paul Sewald would again have a little trouble finishing off the bottom of the 9th. A one out single by Owen Miller was followed by a deep flyout by Andres Gimenez to Mitch Haniger in right. Richie Palacios then singled to center to have two runners on with two outs. Myles Straw hit a fly ball to right and once again Haniger made the play to finish off another Mariner win 4-0. The Mariners have now won five of their six matchups this season with the Guardians.

Seattle (75-58) still wasn’t able to make up any ground in the Wild Card race. Tampa Bay, Toronto, and Baltimore all won so the race remains the same. The Mariners and Rays are tied for the top Wild Card spot two games ahead of Toronto. The Orioles still sit 1.5 games behind Toronto for the final playoff spot. Meanwhile, Cleveland (68-63) has seen their lead in the American League Central dwindle this week. The Guardians sit just one game ahead of Minnesota and two games ahead of the Chicago White Sox. The Mariners will look to complete the sweep on Sunday at 11:40a as George Kirby (6-3, 3.16 ERA) looks to build off a fantastic August in the finale for the Mariners. The Guardians counter with Cal Quantrill (11-5, 3.50 ERA) in the finale. Cleveland has won the last ten games started by Quantrill dating back to July 11th.

Matt’s Takeaway

The one thing I took away from the Mariners game on Saturday wasn’t anything that happened on the field. The pitching was incredible once again. The offense continues to be in a nice groove after a little slump. What I loved the most occurred when George Kirby was interviewed on the broadcast. Teammates heckled him by throwing sunflower seeds at the rookie and putting a towel and bucket of gum on his head as well all while Kirby continued the interview without breaking stride. This team enjoys playing baseball together. These guys are not only a team, but they are friends. A team that has chemistry and comradery like these Mariners do, it can outweigh talent on the field. These guys are dangerous because they are a team. We need to enjoy it because this is special.

Notable Performences

Mariners

• Robbie Ray (W, 12-8)- 6 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO
• Ty France- 1-5, HR, RBI, R
• Cal Raleigh- 1-3, RBI, R, BB

Guardians

• Steven Kwan- 2-4
• Owen Miller- 2-4
• Xzavion Curry (L, 0-1)- 4.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 0 SO

Fun Fact

• Over the Mariners last nine games, they have played 81 innings. In those 81 innings, Seattle has only trailed on six of them. That means the Mariners have either been tied or ahead in 75 of their last 81 innings of baseball including 30 consecutive innings without being behind.