Mariners reach middle of the road, beat Rangers 7-6 in extras

The Mariners finish the first half 42-39 and well back of the Astros

Glass half….

The Mariners needed 12 innings to beat the Rangers on Friday in a game they should have wrapped up much earlier than they did. Miles Mastrobuoni made a gave-saving, over-the-shoulder, diving catch in the 11th inning to set himself up for a game winning single in the 12th. The lineup was equal parts great, unlucky, and nonexistent; they offset their dominance over Rangers pitching with five inning-ending double plays. Logan Gilbert looked excellent at times but was ultimately unable (or not allowed) to get through six innings; the bullpen extended the game behind him in good ways and bad. The Mariners played another halfway decent baseball game to close out the first half of the season. This time they won.

Logan Gilbert was fine. He did his thing. He began the game with two strikeouts on six pitches. His seventh pitch was a hanging slider to Corey Seager, who crushed it for a homer to right. Gilbert then set down 13 of the next 15 batters he faced. It wasn’t the best stuff we’ve ever seen from him, but it was evident why he leads MLB starting pitchers in strikeout rate and whiff rate. Gilbert eventually ran into trouble in the sixth. A single, a hit by pitch, a strikeout, a double, and a single made it 5-4. He sat at just 84 pitches, but the game was now close, so Dan Wilson turned to the pen.

The pen was… the pen. They allowed just one earned run over six-plus innings, but it wasn’t always pretty. It took three pitchers to get through the seventh inning, as Gabe Speier gave up the lead with a soft-contact implosion to make it 5-5. Casey Legumina bailed him out then worked a clean eighth, and Matt Brash followed up with a scoreless ninth. Andrés Muñoz took the mound in the 10th with a one run lead; he held the Rangers hitless but could not exercise Rob Manfred’s ghost runner, who scored on a sac fly to tie the game at 6-6. Eduard Bazardo found himself in the 11th inning with two outs and the bases loaded. Corey Seager then hit a little flare that looked destined for a walkoff, but Mastrobuoni somehow got to the ball with a diving effort in shallow left field to keep the game alive.

And in the cosmic wisdom of baseball, Mastrobuoni came up in the top of the 12th, with a runner on second and two outs. Shawn Armstrong served up a middle-middle sinker, and Mastrobuoni plunked it into left field, scoring Randy Arozarena from second on a close play at the plate (which held up after a lengthy review). Bazardo closed out the game in the 12th to seal a 7-6 victory.

The game probably shouldn’t have been so long and so close. The Mariners lineup filled Baseball Savant’s game log with fire emojis and put constant pressure on Rangers pitchers with 16 hits. But the Mariners wasted most of their at bats with runners in scoring position and grounded into five separate inning-ending double play.

• In the first, Julio Rodríguez picked up a one-out single and came around to score on a walk from Cal Raleigh and a single from Jorge Polanco. Randy Arozarena hit into an inning-ending double play. One run was scored.
• In the second, Luke Raley lead off with a double and moved over to third on a scorched line out to deep center from Dom Canzone. No runs were scored.
• In the third, J.P. Crawford lead off with a single and Julio smacked a hustle double to put runners on second and third. The Rangers intentionally walked Cal to load the bases with nobody out. Polanco hit a weak groundout to score one, Arozarena hit a sac fly to score another, and Raley struck out to end the threat. Two runs were scored.
• In the fourth, Canzone and Williamson each singled to begin the inning. Young then hit a fly ball off the very top of the fence in right field, but the runners had to wait to see if the ball would be caught, and everyone advanced just one base. The top of the order went groundout, groundout, intentional walk (Cal), and groundout. One run was scored.
• In the fifth, Raley and Williamson each picked up singles. No runs were scored.
• In the sixth, Crawford lead off with a single. Julio crushed what looked like a double or a triple or a homer, but Evan Carter made a leaping grab at the centerfield wall to rob him. Cal, finally allowed to swing, laced a double to score Crawford. A strikeout and a groundout ended the inning. One run was scored.
• In the seventh, the Rangers gifted the Mariners a base runner with an error from Corey Seager on a ball that was hit right to him. Donovan Solano grounded into an inning-ending double play. No runs were scored.
• In the eighth, Crawford and Julio each singled to lead off the inning. Polanco eventually grounded into an inning-ending double play. No runs were scored.
• The next three innings included less action but still two more inning-ending double plays. No runs were scored until Mastrobuoni’s game winning hit in the 12th.

The box score from Friday’s game will look impressive in three weeks, when any memory of the specifics have faded. Seven runs on 16 hits and a bunch of hard contact is a good day, and the pitching was fine for what was asked of them. Just about every player on the Mariners roster did something to contribute to the win. Still, they ultimately needed a gift from Rob Manfred to pull this one out. At 42-39 and 6 1/2 games behind the Astros in the AL West, the Mariners playoff hopes seem to rely on another gift from Manfred in the second half.