6/26/23

Mariners 8, Nationals 4

(Seattle, WA) Monday night was the beginning of the final homestand for the Seattle Mariners until after they host the All-Star game and begin the second half of the season. A 2-4 road trip also added some extra pressure for the Mariners as they began the six-game homestand with the opener of a three-game series against the team with the second worst record in the National League in the Washington Nationals. A good turnout for a Monday night game was treated to plenty of offense after a slow start and also plenty of John Denver as good vibes swarmed Seattle as the Mariners took the opener from the Nats 8-4.

Neither team wasted any time getting on the scoreboard on Monday night. Luis Castillo had a shaky start and it all began with the first batter that he faced. Lane Thomas rocked the Mariner ace on the third pitch of the game with a solo shot to left field for his 14th home run of the season. That gave Washington a quick 1-0 lead but it wouldn’t last long. J.P. Crawford welcomed the Nationals starter Trevor Williams the same way. It would be the seventh pitch to Crawford that saw him go to the very bottom of the zone and line his sixth home run of the season over the right field wall. For the fourth time in Mariner history and first since 2013, both teams led off the game with a home run which tied the game 1-1.

Castillo continued to struggle in the early innings. Another long ball got Washington back on top in the top of the 2nd. Dominic Smith took a slider at the bottom of the zone 374-feet for his third home run of 2023, giving Washington the 2-1 lead.

The lead grew in the next inning. CJ Abrams reached on an infield single and a throwing error by J.P. Crawford put Abrams on second to start the inning. After a strikeout of Lane Thomas, Castillo would catch too much of the plate with an 0-1 changeup and Luis Garcia snuck a grounder into center field for a base hit. Abrams had more than enough speed to score from second without a throw and the Nats had three early runs against the Seattle ace to make it 3-1.

After Seattle blew a scoring chance in the bottom of the 3rd and ditto for the Nationals in the top of the 4th, the Mariner bats woke up. The second pitch of the half inning was crushed by Eugenio Suarez down the left field line. The only question was would it stay fair and it did stay inside the foul pole for Geno’s eighth homer of the season to make it 3-2. Jarred Kelenic then followed with a walk and moved up to second when Trevor Williams unsuccessfully tried to pick him off three times which is a disengagement violation. Crawford joined him on base with a two out walk which brought up Julio Rodriguez. J-Rod would cash in with his third base hit of the game, singling to center to score Kelenic and tying the game at 3-3.

A weird bottom of the 5th would swing the game firmly in Seattle’s favor. Teoscar Hernandez led off the inning with a grounder off the heel of Washington’s reliever Cory Abbott. First baseman Dominic Smith came in on the grass to get the deflected grounder and tossed the ball to first base. The problem was that nobody was covering first base and the ball just rolled into the first base coaching box. That allowed Hernandez to reach second with nobody out. Cal Raleigh moved Teo to third with a groundout and Eugenio Suarez just missed his second home run with a deep fly out into the right field corner, but did get his second RBI with the deep flyout to give the M’s a 4-3 lead.

“Country Roads” by John Denver blasted through T-Mobile Park as Jarred Kelenic’s walkup song played as Kelenic stepped up to the plate and it kept playing as he made his way to first base with a walk. It looked like the inning was ended when Kelenic was thrown out at second base on a stolen base attempt. However, Scott Servais would challenge the call and upon further review, Kelenic made a fantastic dive to avoid the tag and record his 10th stolen base of the season…which had “Country Roads” playing again. Mike Ford apparently enjoyed the song as he lined a base hit into center field to score Kelenic and play “Country Roads” one more time as Seattle extended their lead to 5-3. Ford would then score on Kolten Wong’s fourth double of the season that just stayed in the ballpark to make it 6-3 Seattle.

Luis Castillo settled in after a tough start and battled his way to a quality start. After three early runs, Castillo hung up nothing but zeros for the remainder of his outing. La Piedra went seven innings and allowed seven hits with just three runs and only two of them earned, with one walk and seven strikeouts. After some walk heavy outings as of late, it was great to see Castillo bounce back and live in the zone and made the Nationals earn their way on base.

Insurance came for the M’s in the bottom of the 8th. Back-to-back one out walks for Crawford and Julio gave the Mariners a couple of baserunners and forced the Nats to go back to their bullpen and bring in Thaddeus Ward. Ty France welcomed Ward to the game with a soft fly ball down the right field line. It would drop in for a base hit and Crawford scored easily from second to make it 7-3. Teoscar Hernandez would get in on the RBI part with a sac fly to center to score Julio and make it 8-3 going into the 9th.

It would not be a stressless 9th inning for Mariner fans however. Tayler Saucedo struggled in the inning after giving up back-to-back singles to Keibert Ruiz and Dominic Smith to start the inning. The lefty bounced back with back-to-back strikeouts of Derek Hill and CJ Abrams to put the M’s an out away from the win. An RBI double by Lane Thomas kept the inning alive for the Nats and scored a run to make it 8-4. A walk to Luis Garcia ended Saucedo’s outing as Paul Sewald came in with the bases loaded and tying run coming to the plate with two outs. A little help from the home plate umpire helped the Mariners snuff out the late rally as Jeimer Candelario went down looking on a pitch off the plate for a strikeout to solidify an 8-4 win for Seattle.

Seattle (38-39) will try to climb back to .500 on Tuesday night in game two of the series as the Mariners also look to win their third straight home series. Bryan Woo (1-1, 5.09 ERA) will try to build off of his first MLB win in his last outing in the Bronx. Woo has also consistently chipped away at his ERA after his rough debut as it has dropped after each of his last three starts. Washington (30-48) will give the ball to their own rookie in Jake Irvin. Irvin (1-4, 4.71 ERA) is coming off back-to-back competitive starts but the Nats have lost six straight games started by Irvin. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40pm.

Notable Performances

Nationals

• Lane Thomas- 2-5, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, R
• Dominic Smith- 2-3, HR, RBI, R, BB
• Trevor Williams (ND)- 4 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO

Mariners

• Julio Rodriguez- 3-4, RBI, R, BB, SB
• J.P. Crawford- 2-3, HR, RBI, 2 R, 2 BB
• Luis Castillo (W, 5-6)- 7 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO

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