5/31/23

Mariners 1, Yankees 0 (10)

(Seattle, WA) After getting blown out in back-to-back games to start the three-game series with the New York Yankees, the Seattle Mariners needed to end the homestand on a high note on Wednesday night. George Kirby was back on the mound after a really rough performance against Pittsburgh. Both Kirby and the M’s flushed the recent struggles and Kirby stole some national spotlight as Seattle outlasted New York in a pitcher’s duel to avoid the sweep and earn a 1-0 walk off win.

Really, there was nothing too notable offensively for the first six innings of the game. Both pitchers just rolled through the opposing lineup with limited action on base. New York looked like they might have something going in the top of the 7th. With a runner on first and two outs, Isiah Kiner-Falefa looked like he got the M’s again. IKF sent a liner to deep center but Julio Rodriguez again showed his outfield coverage. Crashing into the wall, J-Rod made the catch to prevent an extra base hit and keep the game scoreless.

The Mariners couldn’t capitalize on a leadoff double by Eugenio Suarez in the bottom of the 7th and that led to a no-decision for George Kirby after an absolutely brilliant outing. Coming off of his worst outing of the year, Kirby bounced back with arguably his best outing of the season. Kirby went right after the powerful Yankee lineup and trusted his heater to get him out of some sticky situations. Kirby went eight innings and allowed just three hits with no walks and seven strikeouts. When he didn’t come out for the 9th however, it was still a scoreless game.

Paul Sewald came on to pitch the top of the 9th for Seattle and retired both Greg Allen and Gleyber Torres for a quick two outs. That brought up Aaron Judge and it was time for the M’s to make a decision. They opted to intentionally walk Judge and take their chances against Willie Calhoun. Calhoun would hit a hard line drive to left, but it would hang up for Jarred Kelenic who made the catch to keep the game scoreless. Seattle would go down in order in the home half of the 9th which meant it was bonus baseball in a 0-0 game.

Justin Topa pitched the top of the 10th with a runner starting on second. A groundball to J.P. Crawford looked like Seattle might cut down the runner at third. Crawford booted the grounder though which instead put runners on the corners with no outs. Kiner-Falefa popped one up in foul territory on the infield which was handled by Suarez for the first out. Jake Bauers then walked to load the bases, but Anthony Volpe hit a slow chopper to third and Suarez would go home with it to cut down the run to keep the bases loaded with two outs. A big 3-2 pitch by Topa got Franchy Cordero swinging and once again kept the game scoreless going into the bottom of the 10th.

Jose Caballero pinch ran for Suarez to start the bottom of the 10th. Cal Raleigh stepped up and the key to his at bat was to pull the ball and move Caballero to third. He would pull the ball but nobody on the infield had a play. A line drive for Raleigh found grass in the outfield and Caballero flew around third scoring easily and giving Raleigh a walk off RBI single. Seattle had avoided the sweep with a 1-0 win over the Yankees.

With the walk off win, the Mariners finish up the 10-game homestand with a 7-3 record. Seattle (29-27) will now head on the road for the next eight games including a couple of big divisional series. After a day off on Thursday, the Mariners will open up a three-game set in Texas against the division leading Rangers (35-20) on Friday at 5:05pm. It’ll be the ace Luis Castillo (4-2, 2.69 ERA) looking for a little bit of revenge in his second start against the Rangers this year as he gets the ball in the opener. Jon Gray (5-1, 2.81 ERA) will go for Texas. Gray went seven innings of three hit ball against the Mariners earlier this season.

Matt’s Takeaway

First things first, this was a very successful homestand. The boys are going back on the road above .500 and the life this team had over the past 10 games was so good to see. Julio looked like Julio again which is what the M’s need from him going forward. Geno’s big walkoff home run will hopefully spark him and get him back to his form he had at the beginning of the season. The lineup needs to stay as is for awhile. Crawford is tearing it up in the leadoff spot and the power in the 2-7 spots in the order can go toe to toe with any in baseball. Consistency is key for these guys and this homestand got them going in the right direction.

Now for the pitching. It was inconsistent all homestand. When it was good, it was REALLY GOOD. When it was bad, it was downright awful. It was great to see George Kirby bounce back and I think we will look at that Pittsburgh game as an anomaly at the end of the season. Logan Gilbert will get right as we’ve seen him dig out of a rough patch before. I was never worried about Luis Castillo as he is experienced and will be that ace the M’s need. If Bryce Miller can shake off his first clunker and Marco can do exactly what he has been doing, the win-loss record is going to start looking better and better. We saw glimpses of what this team can be. Now we need to see it last as we get into June which was a pretty good month for the M’s one year ago.

Notable Performances

Yankees

• Clarke Schmidt (ND)- 5.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO
• Gleyber Torres- 1-4
• DJ LeMahieu- 1-4

Mariners

• George Kirby (ND)- 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 SO
• Cal Raleigh- 1-4, RBI
• Julio Rodriguez- 2-4, SB

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