8/23/24

(Seattle, WA) A brand new era of Seattle Mariners baseball began on Friday night at T-Mobile Park. One day after Scott Servais was relieved of his duties as the manager and Jarret DeHart let go as the hitting coach, a pretty big crowd made their way into the ballpark to watch a new but familiar face make his managerial debut.

Having never managed a game at any level, Mariners Hall of Fame catcher Dan Wilson took over the reigns as the 21st manager in franchise history and looked to try to at least end the season in better shape than the team has been in over the last couple of months. A member of the Golden Age of Mariner baseball thus far, Wilson did not come alone as MLB Hall of Famer and former teammate of Wilson in those glory days Edgar Martinez joined the club as the hitting coach for the rest of the 2024 season. Two beloved Mariners taking control of a team that has not had much to be happy about in recent months would look to at least bring some excitement back to baseball in the PNW.

Before the first pitch of the game, Seattle got good news as the Houston Astros lost to Baltimore 7-5 on an 8th inning grand slam by Anthony Santander. The door was open for the M’s to gain a game on the AL West leading Astros. To do so, Seattle would have to take down another struggling offensive team in the San Francisco Giants in the opening game of a three-game series.

Mariners 6, Giants 5 (10 Innings) (Game 1, August 23rd)

With their opening day starter taking the mound, the Mariners had plenty of confidence that they would at least be in the game the entire nine innings. Two batters into the game, the Giants had got to Luis Castillo in what turned out to be a rare outing for La Piedra. Lamonte Wade Jr. drove the sixth pitch of the AB out to center field where Julio Rodríguez would be hesitant to go to hard into the wall in his first game back in center field since July 21st. Instead, he watched the ball sail over the fence for the fifth home run of the season for Wade Jr. In the blink of an eye the M’s found themselves in a 1-0 hole.

San Francisco would send a young starter to the mound in Hayden Birdsong to try to take advantage of the sliding Mariner lineup. While Birdsong wasn’t making many mistakes in the zone, he had issues at some points finding the strike zone, thanks in part to home plate umpire Laz Díaz. In the bottom of the 3rd, Birdsong allowed a one-out walk to Leo Rivas before hitting Luke Raley to put a couple of runners on. After getting Julio to fly out to right, Birdsong walked Cal Raleigh to load the bases. Randy Arozarena would dig in and get ahead 3-1. Birdsong decided to go with a slider well off the plate and got Arozarena to chase to run the count full. Randy then popped out to Matt Chapman at third to end the threat as the M’s left the bases loaded trailing 1-0.

In the next inning, San Francisco got their young starter some breathing room. A one-out single by Heliot Ramos put a man on for Seattle’s own Michael Conforto who would play in his hometown for the first time since July of 2017. In that series seven years ago, Conforto hit a couple home runs against his hometown team. He would do more damage to the M’s in this one. Conforto drove a sinker in the middle of the plate the other way to left center. A 419-foot two-run shot would be Conforto’s 14th of the season and extended the Giants lead to 3-0.

After the Mariners left two runners on in the 4th, Giants manager Bob Melvin had to go to the bullpen early and brought in reliever Sean Hjelle to pitch the 5th. The first batter he would face would be the powerful left-handed Luke Raley. Just like Conforto, Raley got a sinker in the middle of the plate and did not miss it. Raley’s 16th home run of the season flew into The Pen in center for a solo shot. Finally, Seattle got on the board, cutting the deficit to 3-1.

Lamonte Wade Jr. set the table for the Giants to get that run back in the top of the 6th. Wade Jr. led off the inning with his 13th double of the season to put a runner in scoring position with nobody out. All-Star Heliot Ramos would come to the plate and the rookie brought fireworks of his own to Seattle. Ramos demolished a slider 429-feet with a 112-mph exit velocity, sending it into the upper deck in left. The two-run shot for Ramos was his 19th of the season and the third home run for the Giants off of Castillo, something he had not done since August 4th of last year. San Francisco had landed what they thought to be the knockout blow as they took a 5-1 lead.

Seattle left two more runners on in the bottom of the 7th in what felt like the last gasp. Then it happened. Not all at once, but slowly and steadily. In the bottom of the 8th, submarine pitcher Tyler Rogers came on to pitch. Jorge Polanco welcomed him to the game with an infield single to Matt Chapman at third. Then Mitch Haniger singled. Next came Justin Turner as he drove in a run with an RBI single to make it 5-2. After that cam Josh Rojas with an RBI single, making it 5-3 and putting the tying run on base and the go-ahead run at the plate. Instead of trying to hit a homer, Leo Rivas settled for a fifth straight single for the Mariners, driving in Turner to make it 5-4. If five wasn’t enough Luke Raley had more to offer. A bloop single found grass in left field and brought in Rojas to tie the game at 5-5. Six consecutive singles by the Mariners brought T-Mobile Park to life as the game was all even going into the 9th.

Andrés Muñoz pitched a clean 9th, striking out the side in order while San Francisco’s Ryan Walker retired all six batters he faced with five of them coming via the strikeout. The game went to extra innings and Casey Schmitt would run for Andrew Knapp as the automatic runner at second. The red-hot Collin Snider would pitch for the M’s but things got dicey immediately. Tyler Fitzgerald looped a liner into center field, but the No Fly Zone made its return. J-Rod made a fantastic sliding catch to take a hit away from Fitzgerald and keep Schmitt at second. After intentionally walking Lamonte Wade Jr., Snider got back-to-back massive strikeouts of Heliot Ramos and Michael Conforto. Leaving the mound with a fired up yell, Snider had done his job and gave the Mariners a chance to walk it off in the bottom of the 10th, with the score still 5-5.

Dylan Moore would run for Justin Turner as the automatic runner at second. With plenty of speed representing the winning run, Josh Rojas tried to move him up 90-feet, but could not as he struck out against new pitcher Erik Miller. Rookie switch hitter Leo Rivas would come to the plate and had no interest swinging at the first pitch. That was because Dylan Moore got a great jump and stole third for his 24th stolen base of the season. After the call was upheld after a Giants challenge, Rivas fell behind 1-2. He would foul off a fastball and take a close slider for a ball to even the count at 2-2.

Miller would try to sneak a slider by the rookie but Rivas’ two-strike approach was too good. He sent a soft line drive back up the middle and into center field, sending T-Mobile Park into a frenzy. The first career walk-off for Leo Rivas would be the cherry on top of a thrilling day for new manager Dan Wilson. His tenure started off with a dramatic comeback win as the Mariners welcomed Wilson with a 6-5 win over the Giants in 10 innings.

Notable Performances

Giants

Mariners

• Leo Rivas- 2-4, 2 RBI, BB
• Luke Raley- 2-3, HR, 2 RBI, R, BB
• Luis Castillo (ND)- 6 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 9 SO

What’s Next

A thrilling win was desperately needed after the Mariners 1-8 road trip. However, there is still plenty of work left to do for Dan Wilson and company as the Mariners still face a 4 1/2 game deficit in the AL West. Seattle will see a couple of familiar faces over the next two days with Seattle native Blake Snell and former Mariner Robbie Ray scheduled to pitch for the Giants the next two days to end the series. Both lefties have been on tremendous runs as of late and the M’s will have to keep the bats hot to try to earn a series win. George Kirby and Bryan Woo will each start a game for the Mariners this weekend as well. First pitch for both games on Saturday and Sunday is scheduled for 1:10pm. We will have a recap of the remainder of the series this weekend.

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