CLINCHED: Seattle Mariners Take 4-3 Comeback Win vs. Rockies, Secure Postseason Berth
SEATTLE, Wash. — Neck-hairs upright, chills across their bodies of nearly four myriad people, every corporeal vessel—despite the spirits they carry having flown into the stratosphere long ago—stood in place to allow wondrous eyes to spot their night’s hero.
Josh Naylor alone may have been the only calm individual in that building. Old men were dancing around with newfound magical youth, adults of all stripes were bursting with childlike glee, couples and singles were celebratory in equal measure. The biggest stars and the slightest role players gather on the field for a picture that may come to define the uncapturable essence of a playoff run in a championship-starved city. The superstar in the outfield, always energetic, alluded to their ultimate goals.
“You know where we’re going,” Julio Rodríguez told the stadium.
And yet it was the soft-spoken, humble catcher—though no less a superstar—who brought the house down. “MVP” roared as he began to speak and held for a good 30 seconds before the volume was quiet enough for Cal Raleigh to be heard.
“Might as well go win the whole f—ing thing,” Raleigh remarked.
Dominic Canzone Blasts First Run
You might not expect that McCade Brown, a rookie with a 9.17 ERA coming into Tuesday night, would be much of a challenge for Seattle, but he’s exactly the profile of not-great pitcher that tends to stymie Seattle: a fastball-heavy rookie. The M’s, expecting wildness from a starter who came into the game with more walks than strikeouts, took a patient approach at the plate—and yet Brown pounded the zone with early two-seam fastballs and racked up strikeouts against a lineup that had difficulties deciding between an aggressive and patient approach.
And he did indeed put up an incredibly strong start, striking out 10 (five of them looking) and walking two during his five innings of work. The opening no-hitter was broken up by a Josh Naylor single in the fourth, but he took a shutout one inning further.
One of Seattle’s most nationally underrecognized role players—with serious breakout potential—is Dominic Canzone. Although his 250 plate appearances coming into Tuesday’s contest were nowhere close to enough to qualify for a batting title, he has put up a strong season as a right fielder specializing against right-handed pitching, with a .296/.353/.473 slash line, 10 home runs, 10 doubles, and 29 RBIs coming into Tuesday’s game.
Although his .348 BABIP indicates he’s been benefiting from a fair bit of luck, the quality of contact Canzone can put up shows his true potential should he connect a little more consistently. And in the fifth inning on Tuesday, he got all wood on a mistake pitch from Brown.
It may not as flown as far as the facing of the third deck—where he hit one in batting practice four hours earlier—but it was a no-doubt line drive that got into the right field seats in a hurry, tying the game at one run apiece.
Miller Spins Solid Outing, Not Without Difficulties
It may have been against a Rockies team that has not put anything together with the bat, but despite the no-decision and three earned runs, Bryce Miller’s start on Tuesday was one of the better recent outings for Seattle’s injury-dogged fifth starter. Miller accrued four strikeouts while walking just one over his 5 ⅔ innings of work while preventing the home run for the first time since April.
Miller faced a jam in the second, as Rockies left fielder Jordan Beck cracked a soft liner down the left field line for a leadoff double and Ezequiel Tovar bunted him over to third. Miller struck out Brenton Doyle on an unhittable 1-2 splitter and got a quick two strikes on Kyle Karros, but Colorado’s third baseman worked the count full before chopping a ball up the middle for a run-scoring infield single.
It was smooth sailing for a while as Miller easily worked around a couple hits in the early middle innings, but the sixth inning presented a lot more challenges for the Mariners hurler. Mickey Moniak led off with a double, taking advantage of an odd read by Víctor Robles, and a one-out Blaine Crim walk put two on for Colorado.
Up to this point, Miller was yet to yield a yard-breaker. The last time he had gone a full start without giving up a homer was April 29, before his injury started flaring up, an accomplishment that held on by a thread thanks to the shape of T-Mobile Park. Jordan Beck tattooed a 396-foot fly ball to deep center with an .840 expected batting average, but it happened to land in a cranny of the ballpark deep enough to contain it, and it fell into Julio Rodríguez’ waiting mitt.
Both runners were able to advance, however, which gave the M’s a much greater hill to climb. Mariners manager Dan Wilson pulled Miller and put in Eduard Bazardo, his tried-and-tested middle-innings stopper, looking for a final out that would keep it tied going to the bottom of the sixth.
Tovar cracked a go-ahead single into right, trivially scoring Moniak. Robles fielded it cleanly and launched the ball home, but Crim thundered to the plate just in time to put Colorado up 3-1. Bazardo got an easy groundout from Brenton Doyle, but the damage was already done.
Naylor’s Sailors
As it stands, there are few players in all of baseball history that have done more to endear themselves to their deadline destination than Josh Naylor has for Seattle. Time and time again, the Mariners’ new first baseman has come through when it counted, delivering the team from the jaws of defeat and into the glory of victory.
That production has been even more pronounced at home. T-Mobile Park is certainly a friendly building to Naylor, who entered Tuesday with a .342/.393/.605 triple slash in the Mariners’ home ball yard. He, perhaps alone among his peers, is aided by the batter’s eye.
In the bottom of the eighth on Tuesday, Naylor had an opportunity to come through once again. The inning had started off with a hit by pitch and a walk, before Juan Mejia fanned both Randy Arozarena and Cal Raleigh to nearly clean up his own mess. Another hit by pitch loaded the bases and sent Rockies interim manager Warren Schaeffer calling for his closer.
Victor Vodnik, however, had to contend with the Big Grumper. Naylor wasted little time turning the game on its head, drilling a 2-0 fastball into the left center field gap.
Celebrations erupted across Mariners country. With two outs, everyone was going on contact. There was nothing Brenton Doyle could do, three runs were going to score, and the Mariners were once again going to rise from the depths with an intact hull.
Less than half an hour later, Andrés Muñoz punched the ticket, striking Kyle Karros out to seal the deal.
Perfect Results All Around
The Mariners came into that game just two results away from clinching a postseason spot: a Yankees win would remove the possibility of a three-way Yankees-Red Sox-Mariners tie for the final two wild card spots (a combination that would result in Seattle being the odd man out) and a Mariners win would guarantee at least 88 wins, a figure which, factoring in all possibilities, guarantees them a berth.
Both of those happened. Incredibly, both were late-game comebacks. Even more remarkable was the fact that former Mariner José Caballero was the one who secured New York’s walk off.
The cherry on top, however, came from West Sacramento. The Houston Astros lost to the Athletics by a 5-1 score, reducing the Mariners’ magic number for the division to one. A single Mariners win or a lone Astros loss over the next five games will give the M’s their very first division title since 2001.
One question is on everyone’s minds: is this the year?
