8/25/24

(Seattle, WA) After nine games on the road in which the Seattle Mariners managed to only win one of those games, the M’s returned the PNW for six games in the friendly confines of T-Mobile Park. With the Houston Astros having their hands full with four games at Baltimore, it was a pretty good opportunity for the Mariners to try to cut into their deficit in the AL West.

Facing a team that is nearly a mirror image of the Mariners, Seattle would look to use their strength in pitching the keep the San Francisco Giants offense at bay. After stealing the opener in Dan Wilson’s debut as manager, the Mariners would see a couple of familiar faces on the mound for San Francisco. Seattle native Blake Snell and former Mariner Robbie Ray would get the starts on Saturday and Sunday and the two lefties would look to take advantage of a strikeout heavy lineup for Seattle.

Giants 4, Mariners 3 (Game 2, August 24th)

With two afternoon games to wrap up the series over the weekend, Seattle looked to carry over the momentum from their comeback win on Friday night. George Kirby would also try to carry over the momentum from a good outing in Pittsburgh as he took on the reigning NL Cy Young winner in Blake Snell.

Kirby would not have a strong start to the game and San Francisco made him pay early. A leadoff single by Tyler Fitzgerald and a hit by pitch for Heliot Ramos put a couple of runners on with one out. After Michael Conforto walked to load the bases, Matt Chapman drove in the first run of the game. A sacrifice fly to left field allowed Fitzgerald to score making it 1-0. A hard line drive by Mike Yastrzemski was snared by Leo Rivas to stop the bleeding with the score just 1-0.

In the top of the 2nd San Francisco was able to add on. Thairo Estrada and Grant McCray led off the inning with back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second. Kirby would strike out another former Mariner in catcher Curt Casali for the first out. Looking for a double play against Tyler Fitzgerald, Kirby tried to land a slider for a first pitch strike and instead Fitzgerald sent it out to left field. The single drove in Estrada and put the Giants up 2-0. Despite a double steal, Kirby would get a couple of fly outs to end the inning and minimize the damage.

Blake Snell was not on his A game at all. Struggling to find the strike zone, Snell allowed Seattle to stay in the game despite not allowing a hit. In the bottom of the second, Snell walked the bases loaded with two outs and the top of the order coming up. Victor Robles left the game early after being hit by a pitch on the hand to begin the game. Luke Raley replaced Robles and drew a walk to score Jorge Polanco and get Seattle on the board. Julio Rodríguez would follow that up with a walk of his own to drive in Dylan Moore and tie the game at 2-2. Snell would get out of the 2nd but only went three innings, allowing two runs on no hits with five strikeouts but six walks to keep the game tight early.

George Kirby put together a nice 4th and got two quick outs in the top of the 5th to get back on track. A two-out double by Mike Yastrzemski would put some more pressure on the Mariner starter. A wild pitch made things a little trickier as Yastrzemski moved up to third with two outs. Thairo Estrada clutched up with a line drive to left field, scoring Yastrzemski and giving the Giants back the lead at 3-2. Dan Wilson went to the bullpen and brought JT Chargois in to end the inning. Kirby went just 4 2/3 with three runs allowed on nine hits with one walk and three strikeouts.

A Randy Arozarena double was left stranded and San Francisco would open their lead a bit in the 7th. With Austin Voth taking over for Chargois, he needed just six pitches for the first two outs. Pitch number 11 of the inning was the bad one. Mike Yastrzemski continued his strong day as he drove a curveball at the very bottom of the zone out to right. It had just enough to get out for Yastrzemski’s 10th home run of the season. The solo blast extended the Giants lead to 4-2.

After the 7th inning stretch, Jordan Hicks took over on the mound for San Francisco. A walk to Luke Raley followed a strikeout and Julio Rodríguez sent what would have been an RBI double to right. The ball hopped over the fence for a ground-rule double to put runners at second and third with one out. After Justin Turner walked to load the bases, Randy Arozarena sent a grounder to shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald for a 6-4-3, inning ending double play. However, Dan Wilson challenged the call at first and it was overturned. Arozarena was ruled safe, allowing Raley to score and make it 4-3. Camilo Doval would intentionally walk Jorge Polanco to load the bases, but got Mitch Haniger to groundout to preserve the Giants lead.

Seattle kept it a one-run game going into the bottom of the 9th. Ryan Walker would try to close things out and got off to a strong start with strikeouts of Luke Raley and Julio Rodríguez for a quick two outs. Justin Turner extended the game with a single to center to bring the potential winning run to the plate in Randy Arozarena. He would get jammed on a sinker and send a harmless grounder to short. Fitzgerald made the play to end the game, giving the Giants the 4-3 win and forcing a rubber game on Sunday afternoon.

Notable Performances

Giants

Mariners

• Julio Rodríguez- 1-3, 2B, RBI, 2 BB
• Randy Arozarena- 1-5, 2B, RBI, SB
• George Kirby (L, 9-10)- 4.2 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO

Mariners 4, Giants 3 (Game 3, August 25th)

For the rubber game of the series it would be the red hot Bryan Woo looking to continue the best stretch of his career. He would face off against a former Mariner in lefty Robbie Ray who was traded to San Francisco by Seattle in the offseason. Ray would look for a little revenge and possibly deal the knockout blow to the 2024 Mariners.

Both teams found some early offense in this one. An error by Josh Rojas allowed the very first batter of the game to reach base in Tyler Fitzgerald. Two batters later, Heliot Ramos destroyed another baseball, hitting a 390-foot blast for his 20th homer of the season. With a 2-0 lead for the Giants, Woo settled in with back-to-back punch outs to end the inning.

Dylan Moore proved to be a menace after being put in the leadoff spot against his former teammate. After drawing a walk, Moore stole second for his first of three stolen bases in the game and then moved up to third on a wild pitch. With one out, Cal Raleigh pulled a fastball at the top of the zone into left field for a base hit. Moore scored the first run for the Mariners as they trailed 2-1.

After Robbie Ray got a line drive double play to end the 1st, both he and Woo settled in. Seattle would leave a runner stranded in the 3rd, but San Francisco had to go to their bullpen early. Ray would injure his hamstring facing Justin Turner to begin the bottom of the 4th. Sean Hjelle would be thrust into duty early and ended up getting through the inning without allowing a run.

Bryan Woo continued to deal as it stayed a one-run game going into the bottom of the 5th. Josh Rojas singled and moved up to second on a Leo Rivas sacrifice bunt to put the tying run in scoring position with one out. Dylan Moore reached on an infield single to put runners on the corners with Julio coming to the plate. J-Rod sent a grounder to first for a double play opportunity. Fortunately for the M’s, Julio beat out the play to first which let Rojas score. Seattle had evened the game 2-2 with momentum on their side.

A great catch in right field by Mitch Haniger allowed Woo to spin a 1-2-3 top of the 6th. Randy Arozarena would get hit by Sean Hjelle to lead off the bottom of the 6th. A single by Justin Turner and hit by pitch for Jorge Polanco loaded the bases with nobody out and gave the M’s a golden opportunity to take the lead. Mitch Haniger wouldn’t get an RBI as he hit into a 6-4-3 double play, but Arozarena did score to give the M’s a 3-2 lead with Turner moving up to third with two outs. Taylor Rogers then came in to face Josh Rojas and the lefty-on-lefty matchup did not pay off for the Giants. Rojas laced a two-out grounder back up the middle into center field for a base hit. Turner scored on the clutch knock and Seattle’s lead grew to 4-2.

After Bryan Woo finished off his strong outing with seven innings of two run ball on four hits with no walks and seven strikeouts, things got turned over to the bullpen for the 8th. Collin Snider would try to continue his successful season but got off to a bumpy start. A solo shot by rookie Grant McCray tightened things up to start the inning, making the score 4-3. Snider then walked Mark Canha and Lamonte Wade Jr. to put runners on first and second with one out. A massive strikeout of Heliot Ramos got Snider back on track and he would then get Michael Conforto to hit a grounder right back to him to escape the jam. The lead had shrunk, but Seattle still had the edge 4-3.

Andrés Muñoz entered for the 9th with just a one-run lead to protect. He immediately put the tying run on with a walk to Matt Chapman but bounced back with a strikeout of Mike Yastrzemski. A grounder by Thairo Estrada would result in the second out, but it also moved Chapman to second. A wild pitch then put the tying run on third and Muñoz walked McCray to put the go-ahead run on first. Finally, Muñoz got control of his fastball with back-to-back 100+-mph fastballs to get ahead of Mark Canha 0-2. After missing a slider away, Muñoz landed a slider that Canha ripped through for the final strike of the game. Things got awfully tight at the end, but the Mariners were able to hang on for the 4-3 win to take the series over the San Francisco Giants.

Notable Performances

Giants

Mariners

• Bryan Woo (W, 6-2)- 7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 SO
• Josh Rojas- 2-3, RBI, R, BB, SB
• Dylan Moore- 1-2, R, 2 BB, 3 SB

What’s Next

After losing three consecutive series, the Seattle Mariners got back on track with a series win over the Giants. Houston would manage to split the four games with Baltimore which only allowed the Mariners to shave half of a game off of their division deficit. Seattle trails Houston by 4 1/2 games in the AL West. In the Wild Card race, Kansas City dropped two of three to Philadelphia and Minnesota lost two of three to St. Louis. The Mariners trail both the Royals and Twins by 6 1/2 games for the second and third Wild Card spots. Houston will now visit Philadelphia for three while Kansas City visits Cleveland for four and Minnesota hosts Atlanta for three.

Looking to wrap up a successful homestand, the Seattle Mariners (66-65) will get ready to host another team hovering around the .500 mark. The Tampa Bay Rays (65-65) will make the trip from LA to Seattle for three games this week. Back at the end of June, Tampa Bay took two out of three from the Mariners at the beginning of the Mariners massive slide. That series came down to a bad bounce that broke Tampa Bay’s way to help them take that series. However, both teams look very different. Tampa Bay traded away a couple of big pieces in Isaac Paredes to Chicago and of course Randy Arozarena to Seattle. As they end a 10-game road trip in Seattle, the Rays are currently 3-4 on the trip after splitting four in Oakland and losing a close series to the Dodgers.

With so many trades made by Tampa Bay at the deadline, the most surprising move wasn’t a move at all. It seemed like a guarantee that the Rays would trade Yandy Díaz but he remains on the roster here at the end of August. Without question the best pure hitter on the Rays roster, Díaz is actually having a down year batting average wise. Still, his .273 batting average would be third on the Mariners behind only Victor Robles and Leo Rivas, neither of whom qualify for batting average leaders. Díaz can both set the table for power hitters like Jose Siri and new addition to the lineup Christopher Morel. He went 5-14 with a homer, 4 RBI, and 2 runs scored against the Mariners in June. The leadoff man will be a thorn in the side of the Mariners pitchers this weekend as they look to limit his production.

• Game 1, Monday 6:40pm- Ryan Pepiot (7-5, 3.65 ERA) vs. Bryce Miller (9-7, 3.32 ERA)
• Game 2, Tuesday 6:40pm- Jeffrey Springs (1-2, 4.50 ERA) vs. Logan Gilbert (7-10, 3.21 ERA)
• Game 3, Wednesday 1:10pm- TBD vs. Luis Castillo (10-12, 3.66 ERA)

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