8/28/23

Mariners 7, Athletics 0

(Seattle, WA) One more series against a bottom feeder was another opportunity for the Seattle Mariners to try to build on their new division lead. The Oakland Athletics have been a punching bag for most of the league this season, but the Mariners have taken it to another level. Going into Monday night’s series opener, the Mariners were 7-0 against the Oakland A’s, the only team in the AL West that Oakland had not beat this season. They will continue to search for that first win over Seattle as the Mariners took care of business on Monday night to the tune of a 7-0 shutout victory.

While it wasn’t the first pitch of the bottom of the 1st, J.P. Crawford led off with a bang for the Mariners for the fifth time this season. The second pitch would turn into a souvenir as the Mariner shortstop sent hit 12th home run of the season just over the wall in right-center, in front of the J-Rod Squad. A quick spark ignited a pretty big Monday night crowd as they cheered an early 1-0 lead.

Seattle did leave runners in scoring position in each of the first two innings and had Dylan Moore picked off. They were finally able to build their momentum and pull away a bit in the bottom of the 3rd. J.P. Crawford began the inning with his second hit of the game to bring up Julio Rodriguez with a runner on first. Julio stayed hotter than the sun with a bullet to the gap in right center. The ball would get all the way to the wall and Crawford was able to use his speed to score from first on Julio’s 31st double of the season to make it 2-0 Mariners. J-Rod moved up to third on a passed ball and Eugenio Suarez walked to put runners on the corners with nobody out. Another hot Mariner bat came to the plate and added to his RBI total. Teoscar Hernandez sent a liner into center to score Julio and make it 3-0 with still nobody out and runners on first and second. Ty France singled to load the bases and Dylan Moore hit into a 6-4 fielder’s choice to score another run. The M’s would leave Hernandez and Moore in scoring position, but did build a nice 4-0 lead.

The only thing missing from this game was another Julio Rodriguez home run. Well, J-Rod gave the fans what they wanted in the bottom of the 4th. A one out walk put Crawford on base for the third time and after making Crawford sprint around the bases his last time up, Julio let J.P. trot his way home. Julio blasted a slider into the bullpen for a two-run shot and his 24th home run of the season. It was the seventh home run for Julio in the month of August as the Mariner lead grew to 6-0.

I mentioned in my last recap that Bryan Woo was a little bit rusty in his return from the IL in Chicago. That rust was completely gone on Monday night for the rookie. Woo was money for the M’s and did so very economically. Scott Servais did not anticipate Woo going too deep into this one, but with the rookie only throwing 59 pitches through the 5th inning, it was a no-brainer to send Woo out for the top of the 6th. He only needed ten pitches to get through the last inning of his outing thanks to an unassisted double play on a line drive right to Ty France. It was one of the best outings of Woo’s young career as he went six innings of scoreless ball, with just three hits and one walk allowed while striking out five. If this is the Bryan Woo the Mariners get down the stretch, they will have a chance to win every single game for the remainder of the season.

If you have watched a Mariner game in person and kept your eyes on the outfield, Julio Rodriguez and Teoscar Hernandez like to compete with one another in a friendly way. With Julio driving in three runs, Teo needed to even the battle a bit. A one out single by Julio Rodriguez got things going and J-Rod moved to second on a wild pitch. With Julio on second and two outs, Teo did find his second RBI. A ground ball snuck its way into right field for a base hit. Oakland right fielder Seth Brown missed the ball as he tried to scoop and throw which let Julio score without a throw to make it 7-0 Mariners.

Oakland did have one bright spot that I noticed and that was Adrián Martinez out of their bullpen. After starter Kyle Muller only went four rough innings, Martinez ate some innings that were very high in quality. Martinez went the final four innings for Oakland and allowed just one more run on five hits with one walk and one strikeout. For a team that utilizes their bullpen way more than they would like, this gave a chance for almost the entire Oakland bullpen to get a breather and be ready to go for the final two games of the series.

The bats just never got going for Oakland regardless of if they were facing Woo or the Mariner bullpen. Trent Thornton was the final man out of the bullpen for Servais and he looked to complete the shutout in the 9th. A pop up by Ryan Noda was caught by Jose Caballero at second and Zack Gelof flew out to Julio in center for the first two outs. The shutout was in jeopardy when Seth Brown hit a hard, slicing line drive over J-Rod’s head for his 13th double of the year. That brought up All-Star Brent Rooker but he continued to struggle against the Mariners. Thornton got Rooker to fly out to Cade Marlowe in right for the final out, giving the Mariners the 7-0 win and their 13th shutout victory of the season.

With four straight wins, the Mariners (75-56) remain atop the AL West. Texas, Houston, and Toronto all won on Monday night so nothing changed in regards to the M’s one game lead in the division over Texas and Houston and 3 1/2 game lead over Toronto if the Wild Card becomes a factor. Seattle will look to move to 9-0 against the Oakland A’s (38-94) in game two on Tuesday at 6:40pm. George Kirby (10-8, 3.28 ERA) will be the starter for the Mariners in the second game of the series. Kirby has not looked as sharp in his last two starts against Kansas City and Chicago. In those two starts, Kirby went 11 2/3 innings and allowed a combined 16 hits and seven runs but still has not allowed a walk since July 31st. The bats will face another lefty in Ken Waldichuk (2-7, 6.05 ERA) for the Athletics. Waldichuk has had a decent month of August, but has allowed five home runs in his last 10 2/3 innings of work.

Notable Performances

Athletics

• Seth Brown- 1-4, 2B
• Zack Gelof- 1-4, SB
• Kyle Muller (L, 1-5)- 4 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 6 SO

Mariners

• Julio Rodriguez- 4-5, 2B, HR, 3 RBI, 3 R
• J.P. Crawford- 2-4, HR, RBI, 3 R, BB
• Bryan Woo (W, 2-3)- 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO

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