7/31/23

Mariners 6, Red Sox 2

(Seattle, WA) Not all wins are happy wins. The Seattle Mariners had one of those somber victories on Monday night despite it coming against one of the teams ahead of them in the AL Wild Card race. The day began with the Mariners trading beloved closer Paul Sewald to the Arizona Diamondbacks for a couple of young major leaguers and an up-and-coming prospect. Seattle also sent AJ Pollock to San Francisco so the clubhouse had changed but the momentum of the team did not. For the second time this season, Cal Raleigh had a multi-homer game against the Boston Red Sox as Seattle stayed hot, taking game one 6-2.

It was about as ugly of a start to the game as one could imagine for the Seattle Mariners. A rare George Kirby walk put Jarren Duran on first to begin the game. With incredible speed, Duran attempted to steal second off of Tom Murphy and did so as Murphy’s throw sailed into center field. Duran would then head to third as Julio Rodriguez came up throwing but sent the ball towards the Red Sox dugout. Durran then popped up and headed home, scoring on the two errors by the Mariners and the horrendous, Little League style play. Boston had jumped out to a 1-0 lead.

Seattle’s first hit would be a loud one in the bottom of the 2nd. Nick Pivetta challenged Cal Raleigh with a fastball right down the heart of the plate and Raleigh took advantage. Cal sent his 15th home run of the season into the right field stands to tie the game up at 1-1.

Neither side got much going again until the top of the 5th. With George Kirby’s pitch count climbing near 100 due to so many foul balls, Boston put some pressure on him with a Pablo Reyes leadoff single. A tough chopper by Yu Chang turned into a fantastic play by Eugenio Suarez as Geno made a fantastic backhanded play and a strong throw to get Chang for the first out while Reyes moved to second. Jarren Duran then singled to put runners on the corners with just the one out and the tough part of the Boston order coming up. A big strikeout of Justin Turner put Kirby one out away from getting out of trouble. After Durran swiped second, Masataka Yoshida hit a rocket out to left, but a good jump by Cade Marlowe helped him flag it down for the final out to keep the game tied at 1-1.

Gabe Speier came in to pitch the top of the 6th but did not get off to a good start. Back-to-back singles by Rafael Devers and Triston Casas put runners on first and second for the Sox with nobody out. The Mariner lefty then made the biggest pitch of the day by a Mariner pitcher. Speier got Alex Verdugo to his into a 4-6-3 double play to change the situation to a runner on third with two outs. Connor Wong then hit a grounder to third and Suarez made another strong play to get Wong and strand Devers at third as things remained tied up.

In the bottom of the 7th, the Big Dumper struck again. For the second time this season, Cal Raleigh recorded a multi-home run game against the Boston Red Sox. This time, both came from the left side of the plate as Raleigh crushed a no-doubter to right for home run number 16 of 2023. The M’s had taken their first lead of the game at 2-1.

In the bottom of the 8th, Seattle busted things open. A one out double for Cade Marlowe got the inning going as the Mariners caught fire. Joe Jacques then took over for Nick Pivetta and hit Jose Caballero to put two runners on. J.P. Crawford then battled through fouling a ball off the inside of his right knee and had a 10-pitch at bat before drawing a walk to load the bases. Julio Rodriguez did not waste any time after a mound meeting for Boston. J-Rod grounded one past the first baseman on the first pitch and into right field. Marlowe and Caballero both scored with ease as Crawford reached third on Julio’s two-run single to open things up a bit at 4-1. Seattle was not done as Eugenio Suarez then sent a hard hit grounder into left field to score J.P. and make it 5-1. After Raleigh reached on an error to load the bases. Teoscar Hernandez potentially capped off his Mariner career with a swinging bunt up the third base side. There was no play for Jacques as everyone moved up and another run scored to make it 6-1 Seattle.

With Paul Sewald gone, the Mariners had some decisions to make on how they handled the top of the 9th, but a four-run 8th made things a little easier. Isaiah Campbell would pitch the top of the 9th but it wasn’t exactly clean. Connor Wong began the inning with his 20th double of the season, but he remained on second after Pablo Reyes popped out and Adam Duvall flew out to center for a quick two outs. Campbell then got Jarren Duran to strikeout swinging, but the ball kicked away from Tom Murphy for a dropped third strike. Duran reached first to keep the game alive while Wong moved to third. Duran took second on fielder’s indifference, and Justin Turner really began stressing out Mariner fans with an RBI infield single to make it 6-2 with runners on the corners. Masataka Yoshida hit a missile up the middle, but a phenomenal diving catch by J.P. Crawford at short put a stop to the Boston comeback bid as the Mariners hung on to take game one 6-2.

With the big win on Monday, Seattle (55-51) will look to carry their July success over into August as we all wait to see what the Mariners do on Deadline Day. Bryce Miller (7-3, 3.96 ERA) will not be traded and will make the start in game two at 6:40pm. The M’s won all three of Bryce Miller’s July starts and Miller has been fantastic at home this season. In T-Mobile Park, the Mariner rookie is 5-1 with a 2.70 ERA and 41 strikeouts to just nine walks in 43 1/3 innings. For the Boston Red Sox (56-50) they will try to snap their three-game losing streak with Brayan Bello (7-6, 3.66 ERA) on the mound. The young Red Sox starter has just one non-quality start since June started despite his worst month coming in July.

Trades

• Seattle trades closer Paul Sewald to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for Utility Josh Rojas, OF Dominic Canzone, and SS Ryan Bliss
• Seattle trades OF AJ Pollock and IF Mark Mathias to San Francisco in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations

Notable Performances

Red Sox

• Rafael Devers- 3-4
• Justin Turner- 1-4, RBI, BB
• Nick Pivetta (L, 7-6)- 7.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 10 K

Mariners

• Cal Raleigh- 2-4, 2 HRs, 2 RBI, 2 R
• Julio Rodriguez- 1-4, 2 RBI, R
• George Kirby (ND)- 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO

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