5/14/23

Tigers 5, Mariners 3

(Detroit, MI) Pink bats and gear stood out at Comerica Park on Sunday morning as the tradition has been across Major League Baseball on Mother’s Day. This is done to spread breast cancer awareness and it is always such a cool and unique visual every May. The Seattle Mariners were trying to celebrate Mother’s Day by completing a sweep of the Detroit Tigers. A fast start had things looking good, but a gradual fade throughout the rest of the game ended up with the M’s being on the wrong end of a 5-3 defeat.

Logan Gilbert was clearly off from the very get go of the finale. He struggled to find the strike zone and wasn’t very close either. Back-to-back Zach McKinstry and Riley Greene singles were followed by a wild pitch to put runners on second and third with no outs. Javier Baez drove in a run with a groundout to J.P. Crawford to give Detroit the first run and a 1-0 lead. Gilbert retired the next two batters to end the inning with just the one run being scored.

A Seattle threat died in the 2nd, but the Mariners did get on the board in the top of the 3rd. Crawford singled to start the inning and Ty France would do the same to put runners on the corners with no outs. A balk would bring in Crawford to tie the game 1-1 with France moving to second. Julio Rodriguez got a curveball just off the end of his bat but he was able to drop it into left field for a base hit. France got a good read on the single and scored from second to make it 2-1 Mariners. Eugenio Suarez singled while Tom Murphy hit into a fielder’s choice to put runners on the corners with one out. Teoscar Hernandez extended the lead with a sacrifice fly to deep right field to score Rodriguez making it 3-1 and chasing Detroit starter Joey Wentz in just the 3rd inning.

Detroit answered back immediately to cut it back to a one-run game. After a quick two outs, Riley Greene continued to hurt Mariner pitching with a single and he would move to second base on another Gilbert wild pitch. Javy Baez came through for Detroit again with his second RBI of the game with a single to right to make it 3-2.

The Mariner offense continued to struggle to score runs against the Detroit bullpen and it finally caught up with them in the bottom of the 6th. A two-out double by Andy Ibáñez chased Logan Gilbert after 5 2/3 innings and six hits allowed with one walk and four strikeouts. Akil Baddoo would get to Trevor Gott with his sixth double of the season to drive in Ibáñez and tie the game 3-3.

Things fell apart for the Mariner bullpen in the bottom of the 7th. Gabe Speier struggled mightily. Jake Rogers drew a leadoff walk and Jonathan Schoop followed with a single to put runners on first and second to begin the inning. Speier would strikeout Riley Greene to end his day. Matt Brash really struggled as well. After getting Baez to fly out, Brash walked Spencer Torkelson to load the bases. Brash would then hit Nick Maton to score the go-ahead run and make it 4-3 Detroit. Another free pass was issued when he walked Ibáñez to make it 5-3. Juan Then would then come in and end the inning but the Mariner offense had some work to do.

Seattle would put a threat together against Detroit closer Alex Lange. One-out walks by Ty France and Eugenio Suarez brought up the go-ahead run in Cal Raleigh. The Mariner catcher went down swinging for the second out and it came down to Teoscar Hernandez. After working the count full, Hernandez went down swinging on a curveball at the bottom of the zone for a strikeout thus ending the Mariner sweep attempt falling 5-3.

After taking two of three in Detroit, Seattle (20-20) will now head to Boston to take on the Red Sox (22-19) for a three-game series. George Kirby (4-2, 2.62 ERA) will attempt to continue his ridiculous stretch but will have to do it against a strong lineup in a hitter-friendly ballpark. Boston, who has had issues with their starting pitching, will open with Tanner Houck (3-2, 5.26 ERA) in game one.

Matt’s Takeaways

I am starting to have concerns with Matt Brash. He is starting to give me Fernando Rodney vibes. When he is on, nobody can touch him. He can sit down any three hitters in baseball. When he is off, no lead is safe. What it might need to come down to is taking some velocity off that fastball when he is off. Giving up hits is way more acceptable than walking batters. You can’t be a successful reliever when you give up free passes. Again, he is not anywhere close to being a guy to give up on. But there has got to be something that can be done on those days where he just doesn’t have a great feel with either of his pitches.

Notable Performances

Mariners

• Julio Rodriguez- 1-4, RBI, R
• J.P. Crawford- 2-5, R
• Logan Gilbert (ND)- 5.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO

Tigers

• Riley Greene- 3-5, R
• Andy Ibáñez- 1-3, 2B, RBI, R, BB
• Joey Wentz (ND)- 2.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO

elisportsnetwork.com