5/23/23

Mariners 3, Athletics 2

(Seattle, WA) Tuesday night’s game between the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics wasn’t quite as enjoyable as the opener on Monday for Mariner fans. The game started out clunky and there were some injury concerns late that put a damper on all the good that happened in between. The good that happened was Marco Gonzales bouncing back from a clunker in Boston and a quick one inning power surge by the top of the Mariner order. The good ended up outweighing the bad as the Mariners took game two from Oakland with a close 3-2 win.

Again, the beginning of the game was bumpy for Seattle. The pesky Esteury Ruiz started the game with a base hit and then recorded his 25th stolen base of the season already to get himself into scoring position with just one out. Ramon Laureano then dunked a single into right field for a knock but Teoscar Hernandez came up with a strong throw. The speed of Ruiz was too much and he scored while Laureano took second on the throw to give Oakland a 1-0 lead. Laureano moved up to third on a groundout by Jesus Aguilar for the second out, but the A’s would cash in. Carlos Perez snuck a grounder through the left side of the infield for an RBI single. By the time the Mariners got to the plate, they were down 2-0.

After that 1st inning, Marco Gonzales was fantastic. Marco only allowed two more hits in his next five innings of work and only face more than three batters in an inning once thanks to a couple of double plays. To battle back from not only a clunker in his last outing, but a rough first inning shows the growth in the lefty over the last few seasons. He didn’t give in and just kept grinding to give his team a chance to get the win. Getting six innings of five hit and two run ball with just one walk and four strikeouts from the #5 pitcher in your rotation is excellent. Outside of two really bad starts this season, Marco has been just excellent for a strong Seattle rotation.

The bad news for the M’s was that the other guy on the mound was having the best start of his young career. Luis Medina was in complete control of the Mariner lineup but seemed to give up on his slider for just a quick stretch and that cost him. With two outs in the 5th inning, Tom Murphy kept the inning alive with his sixth double of the season to turn the lineup over and bring up J.P. Crawford. The Mariner shortstop continued to thrive in the leadoff spot but not in his usual way. Crawford jumped on a fastball and lasered it over the wall in right center for his second home run of the season. The two-run shot turned the game around and tied it up at 2-2.

Shortly after that, the game was tied no more. Ty France went down and got a slider at the bottom of the zone and got every piece of it. France hit is third home run of the season right off of the ‘X’ in Texas in the out of town scoreboard, knocking out the panel in the process. The solo shot turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 Mariner lead in just three batters.

That would be the last bit of action until the bottom of the 8th which saw all sorts of chaos. Kelso’s own Trevor May made his return from the IL from some mental health issues and was a bit rusty. May hit Ty France on the wrist and France was immediately in a ton of pain. France would stay in momentarily but was then pulled from the game and taken for X-rays which came back negative. The All-Star first baseman is considered day-to-day. Then, Julio Rodriguez was called out due to fan interference when a fan reached over the wall in the right field corner and touched a fly ball that was playable for A’s right fielder Ramon Laureano. That got the fans booing which only got worse when May then hit Eugenio Suarez which led to the third baseman staring down the Oakland reliever. I give my thoughts on this in the takeaways below. All of that occurred without a run being scored which sent us to the 9th.

The 9th was not nearly as dramatic as the bottom of the 8th. Paul Sewald came on for the save opportunity and made quick work of the A’s. Brent Rooker would fly out to Julio for the first out to get the inning started. Sewald then struck out both Ramon Laureano and Ryan Noda to quickly put away another Mariners win over the A’s by a final score of 3-2.

With the win, Seattle (24-24) gets back to .500 with a chance to now get some cushion in their winning record. The look to move to 6-0 against Oakland (10-40) in game three of the four-game series on Wednesday at 6:40pm. Bryce Miller (2-1, 1.42 ERA) will face the team he made his debut against and looks to get back on track after his first outing giving up multiple runs in Atlanta. Oakland counters with Ken Waldichuk (1-3, 6.85 ERA) who has only allowed fewer than three runs in one of his nine starts in 2023.

Matt’s Takeaway

No, Trevor May was not trying to hit anybody. Fans always seem to feel attacked when one of their players gets hit by a pitch. It is unfortunate, absolutely. But this is a guy just coming back to pitching in game. He lost control of a couple of pitches. To immediately start saying a guy is throwing at players is absurd. Imagine if it was a pitcher from your favorite team that hit a guy and immediately is being blamed and is being told he hit the guy on purpose? You would laugh and say that is ridiculous. Well don’t be the ridiculous one when it is the guy on your team getting hit. Read the situation. Understand what is going on. It is incredibly obvious when a guy is hit on purpose. Just because someone hits  a home run doesn’t mean that they become a target. The M’s and A’s have no real beef in 2023. Stop getting so worked up over accidents. Oh and also, let’s not reach over the fence for a ball that is still in play.

Notable Performances

Athletics

• Ramon Laureano- 2-4, RBI, R
• Esteury Ruiz- 1-4, R, SB
• Luis Medina (L, 0-3)- 5.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO

Mariners

• J.P. Crawford- 1-3, HR, 2 RBI, R, BB
• Ty France- 1-3, HR, RBI, R
• Marco Gonzales (W, 4-1)- 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO

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