7/2/23

Mariners 7, Rays 6

(Seattle, WA) When it comes to baseball, it doesn’t matter how much talent you have on your roster. There has to be more to a team than just on the field skill. 162 games is an absolute marathon and talent can only take you so far in the long run. Other things a team needs are comradery, heart, fight, and a desire to get better and get to those end goals. Maybe the biggest asset is belief. If a team believes they can do something, that team immediately becomes dangerous. The Seattle Mariners for the first time showed many of those qualities in 2023 on Sunday. When things didn’t go right against the top team in baseball in the Tampa Bay Rays, the M’s dug deep and found a way to get the job done. What went down as a 7-6 Mariner win to take the series from the Rays could be just what the M’s need to get this team going.

As All-Star selections were announced during the game it was fitting that the lone Mariner All-Star was also on the mound for Seattle in the finale as Luis Castillo was named to his third career All-Star game and his first since joining the Mariners last season. However, his start on Sunday wasn’t exactly All-Star quality. Fellow All-Star Randy Arozarena dealt a big blow to La Piedra in the top of the 1st. Arozarena chased a sinker in off the plate but got the barrel to the ball and launched his 16th home run of the season. Tampa Bay had taken an early 1-0 lead.

After Seattle wasted a leadoff double by J.P. Crawford in the bottom of the 1st, Tampa Bay added another long ball in the 2nd. Isaac Paredes would again get to a pretty good pitch from Castillo and pulled a pitch down and away out to left field for his 14th home run of the season. The two solo blasts had Tampa Bay feeling good early up 2-0.

Seattle would find their own long ball luck in the bottom half of the 2nd. With the bases empty and one out, Eugenio Suarez fell behind Taj Bradley quickly at 0-2. Geno would then pull a fastball at the top of the zone and unlike Saturday night’s deep sacrifice fly, this one cleared the wall into the Mariner bullpen for a solo shot. The ninth home run for the Mariner third baseman put Seattle on the board trailing 2-1.

Just like in game one on Friday night, Tampa Bay had one big inning and that was in the top of the 3rd. An error by Jose Caballero and a single by Josh Lowe put runners on the corners with nobody out. Perhaps the biggest All-Star snub in Wander Franco cashed in with a sacrifice fly to score Vidal Brujan from third and make it 3-1. After Arozarena reached on a single, Luke Raley continued his strong series in Seattle with his 14th double of the season. Lowe and Arozarena both scored to extend the Tampa Bay lead to 5-1. Harold Ramirez and Isaac Paredes both singled to drive in another run to make it 6-1 before the M’s could finally get out of the inning.

As if the top of the 3rd didn’t have enough action, the bottom half of the inning surpassed it. With one out, Julio Rodriguez recorded his 15th double of the season and he would score immediately as Ty France followed with his 22nd double of the season to get a run back with the Mariners still trailing 6-2. Then a scary collision slowed the game down. Teoscar Hernandez hit a groundball to third base where Isaac Paredes charged the ball. Ty France would collide with Paredes and both men went down and stayed down for awhile. After France was initially called out, the replay revealed the ball was already by Paredes when the collision took place which took away interference and put runners on the corners with one out. France would stay in the game but unfortunately Paredes would leave the game with rib discomfort. There was good news after the game as Paredes is not expected to miss any additional time due to the collision.

When everything settled down, the M’s had runners on the corners and one out. The long delay seemed to affect Taj Bradley as he began to lose command on the mound. Jarred Kelenic took advantage of that as he punched a changeup into left center for a base hit. France scored to make it 6-3 as Hernandez stopped at third and Kelenic slid into second with his 19th double of 2023. A flyout by Eugenio Suarez wasn’t deep enough to score Hernandez but Mike Ford came up big for Seattle again with two outs. The DH chased a changeup off the plate but was able to get it into center field for a base hit. Teo and Kelenic both scored on the Ford single and Seattle was right back in the game trailing 6-5.

While it wasn’t exactly an ace like stat line, it was an ace like start from Luis Castillo. After being roughed up early, Castillo was able to batten down the hatches and gut his way through six innings without allowing a run in the final three innings of work. Castillo went six innings and allowed eight hits and six runs but did not walk a batter and still struck out six. The offensive explosion in the bottom of the third woke up La Piedra and he gave his team everything he had in the final three innings and gave them a chance to win it late.

So many quality starts by Luis Castillo have been wasted due to a lack of offense from the Mariners this season, but this time they were going to bail him out. In the bottom of the 6th, possibly the hottest hitter right now for the Mariners stepped to the plate in Tom Murphy. With the bases empty and one out, Murphy crushed his fifth and longest home run of the season 422 feet over the left field wall. That solo shot brought the Mariners all the way back and tied the game 6-6.

A scoreless top of the 7th pitched by Andres Muñoz gave the crowd a ton of energy after the 7th inning stretch. Seattle would face reliever Jason Adam who clearly did not have his best stuff and lacked command from the beginning of the inning on. Teoscar Hernandez ledoff with a walk and after a Jarred Kelenic strikeout, Eugenio Suarez was hit by a 3-2 pitch to put runners on first and second. Mike Ford then hit a towering fly ball to deep right field that just stayed in the ballpark as Josh Lowe made the catch but Hernandez advanced to third with two outs. Tom Murphy held off on a 3-2 changeup above the zone to walk and load the bases for Jose Caballero. Adam’s wildness on the mound cost him and Caballero cashed in as the rookie was hit by the first pitch of the AB to score Teo and give Seattle their first lead of the game at 7-6.

Seattle couldn’t add on any more offense for the rest of the game, but Matt Brash pitched a scoreless 8th and paved the way for Paul Sewald to close the door in the top of the 9th. Sewald mowed down both Manuel Margot and Yandy Diaz for two strikeouts and brought up Josh Lowe. The Tampa Bay right fielder would swing at the first pitch and hit a fly ball to his counterpart in Teoscar Hernandez who made the routine catch to complete the comeback win for the Mariners by a final of 7-6.

T-Mobile Park will be empty now until All-Star festivities begin as the Seattle Mariners (40-42) will head out on the road for the final seven games before the All-Star break. First up is a three-game series with the San Francisco Giants (46-38) beginning on Monday at 6:45pm. Bryan Woo (1-1, 4.37 ERA) has looked better since his tough debut but knows that he still has some areas to improve on which he will look to do when he takes the mound in the opener. Opposite of him will be Logan Webb (7-7, 3.43 ERA) for the Giants who is coming off his worst month of the season in June but was helped out by a red hot San Francisco offense over the past month.

Matt’s Takeaway

Not all wins are the same. Sure they look the same when you look at records, but some wins can completely change the course of the season. Sometimes it can be a loss that does the same thing. The three straight losses this week felt like they could be the ones that would put the 2023 Mariners down for good. Even the win Saturday didn’t really feel different from an average win.

Sunday was different. Sunday is a game that you could circle back to in October and say this is where the Seattle Mariners turned the season around. When your ace and All-Star is just off his game like Castillo was, a team can’t be faulted for just saying “It isn’t our day,” and phoning it in for nine innings. That isn’t what the Mariners did. It is what they have done many times this season, but on Sunday we saw the glimpses of the 2021 and 2022 Seattle Mariners. Everyone stepped up. Unlikely heroes like Tom Murphy and Mike Ford led the way. We saw heart, fire, and desire from Seattle on Sunday. And to do it against a team that is almost a guarantee to make the playoffs is season altering.

Sure the Rays aren’t looking as dominant as they were back in April, but they are still a team that can go win a pennant and play in the World Series. You know who else has enough talent to do that? The Seattle Mariners. The talent is there. It is undeniable. Look at the resumes of the players on the roster. They all can do better than what they have done so far this season. But it takes more than talent. On Sunday we saw the intangibles work their way into the picture. This is the second time this season I have felt that a win is going to be the springboard to a strong run. The first was April 30th in Toronto. The Mariners went 8-3 over their next 11 games after that. They need to make this one last longer. Because if they don’t capitalize on this second chance, they likely won’t get a third.

Notable Performances

Rays

• Isaac Paredes- 2-2, HR, 2 RBI, R
• Randy Arozarena- 2-4, HR, RBI, 2 R
• Taj Bradley (ND)- 3.1 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO

Mariners

• Tom Murphy- 2-2, HR, RBI, R, 2 BB
• Mike Ford- 1-4, 2 RBI
• Luis Castillo (ND)- 6 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO

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