Mariners complete sweep with 5-0 win over Texas

Tridents up and brooms out

The “Don’t Mess With Texas” slogan originates from an anti-littering campaign, so it was very courteous of the Mariners to bring out the brooms and sweep up Texas today, in the process placing their boot more firmly on the necks of the AL West than at any point since the end of the 2001 season.

The star of today’s game was undoubtedly Logan Gilbert, who was so hot I thought Rohan was going to ride to Gondor’s aid. Honoring the anniversary of the only immaculate inning in Mariners history, Logan collected four three-pitch strikeouts. When he started the fourth inning with two in a row, you could hear the excitement in Aaron Goldsmith’s voice, and then hear all the air leave the booth when Logan went ball one to the next batter as the feed went silent for at least thirty seconds.

Combining an extra mph on his four-seamer with a sharp slider would probably have been enough to carve through the Rangers’ lineup. But it was the splitter that took things to another gear today, with that pitch as locked in as I’ve ever seen it. Of the 21 he threw, he picked up eight whiffs and zero balls in play. I mean, look at this:

But as impressive as those pitches were, he was flagging to open the seventh against Adolis García. He was missing his spots and his slider had lost a little bite. García eventually scorched a 2-2 splitter into what used to be the King’s Court, and it really felt like something bad was going to happen. But the thing about the work he’s put in to Build-A-LoGi-Bear, he now has six arrows in his quiver to turn to when he’s in trouble. Cal Raleigh smartly and unexpectedly called for a spiked curveball. With so many pitches to think about, García just wasn’t ready for something to move like that and couldn’t check his swing. Logan buttered his bread with the slider and splitter today, but this curve was the pitch of the game.

Although he didn’t mention this pitch specifically, Gilbert did praise his batterymate after the game: “A lot of credit to Cal, I think he knows me well enough at this point that he knows where to set up that works best for me. . . . I think he knows how to get me at my best.”

Coming back out for the eighth, Gilbert emptied the tank and embarrassed an overmatched bottom of the Rangers’ lineup. That completed a string of retiring Logan’s final 13 batters in a row. Going 19 for 23 on first-pitch strikes, he ended up with 21 whiffs, 9 strikeouts, no walks, and just two hits as part of eight shutout innings that dropped his ERA to under 3.00. The consensus seems to be congealing around making Andrés Muñoz the Mariners’ All-Star representative, and he’d deserve it; but for my money, I think it’s Gilbert. Whether he gets that honor or not, he does get today’s Sun Hat Award. I prefer to spread them around and can’t help but notice that it’s Gilbert’s third of the season, but with an outing this dominant, I just have to go where the game leads me.

Kate asked whether this was Logan’s best performance ever. The immediate other contenders that came to mind were his complete game shutout against the Giants on Independence Day last year and his 12 strikeouts against the Padres last August, including becoming one of just three pitchers to ever strike out Juan Soto three times in a game. By Game Score v.2, these are indeed his three best outings. They’ve all got something going for them: The Giants game has the complete-game factor; the Padres game has the most vicious opposing lineup (these Rangers are not the 2023 Rangers–Travis Jankowski was their DH today); and today had the biggest stakes as an intra-division game.

I’m trying to fight recency bias and vote for the Padres game. Logan ducked the question, but did say, “It definitely means a lot when it’s in-division.”

What say you?

Somehow, the offense was just about as much fun. The two biggest highlights both came from Josh Rojas, who worked a 14-pitch at-bat in the first inning. Though it sadly ended in a pop-up, it was a hell of a fight, and Alex Mayer informs LL that it was the longest AB by a Mariner since Justin Smoak’s 16-pitch at-bat in 2013. For me, it also called to mind Felix’s epic duel with Mike Trout (which was written up brilliantly by our own Jeff Sullivan over at FanGraphs). Later in the game, Rojas cashed in his own double, scoring from second on a wild pitch. Magic Mayer once again dug up that this was the first time the Mariners have done that since Dee Strange-Gordon in 2019.

An ooh, lah, lah-cklear upper-tank bomb was the most impressive contact of the game. But the Mariners really put the game away in eighth, scoring two runs on a string of a hit-by-pitch, walk, single, and wild pitch from Cole Winn, who was selected immediately after Gilbert in the first round of the 2018 Draft. It was a perfect bookend to the Mariners having set up the weekend by starting Emerson Hancock against his fellow 2020 first-rounder, Garrett Crochet.

Punting that game hurt, especially since the Mariners almost came back to win it in extras. But it allowed the Mariners to throw Castillo-Kirby-Gilbert, each with an extra day of rest, in this high-stakes series. And the Big Three delivered with a combined three runs over 20 innings to sweep the Rangers as the team’s conclusion to 30 games in 31 days and 43 in 45. The Mariners’ 26-17 record over that stretch, including taking five of seven from Houston and sweeping these Rangers, catapulted them to the biggest division lead in baseball. It’s a little too early to start twirling our mustaches, but if you can’t act like Buster Bluth on a juice binge after a series like this, maybe baseball just isn’t for you.