Harry Ford Welcomes First Hit, Mariners Drop Winnable Game to Dodgers in Late Innings, 5-3
SEATTLE, Wash. — It was a back-and-forth game, each team leaving runs on the table as they fell victim to the others’ pitching, but in the end, the Dodgers bested the Mariners in another close contest in front of a visitor-friendly crowd at T-Mobile Park.
It didn’t matter much in terms of immediate fact for either team, as both sides had clinched their exact playoff spot before the series had even started. Still, the loss contained some nagging issues on the Mariners’ side and a bit of worrying performance from a couple of the top men in the team.
The most lasting thing for Seattle, despite the loss, was a good milestone for a player who has only recently joined the Mariners’ big league ball club.
Ford Gets First Big League Base Knock
If all goes well for Harry Ford, his 2025 season will become something of a footnote in the grand story of his career—but that doesn’t mean it isn’t full of milestones for the young Mariner catcher. He had already accrued his first at-bat, his first run scored, and his first RBI during his sporadic September appearances; on Saturday, he started his first game at catcher.
“He’s done a really great job of soaking it up and truly trying to learn from Garv or Cal, and anybody else that’s around and can teach him anything,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said about Ford before the game. “Attaching to your new identity as a player, not trying to go out there and do too much, that’s always the trick. I remember my big league debut, I swung at three pitches before they left the pitcher’s hand because I was gonna hit it nine miles.”
There was an early swing in Ford’s first at-bat, but true to that advice, he didn’t try to hit it nine miles. Rather, he saw a wide gap up the middle of the infield and shot Tyler Glasnow’s first pitch slider straight into center field.
It was the very first hit of Ford’s career, and it came with two outs and Leo Rivas on first. Although nothing came of the opportunity for the Mariners, it was a moment that Harry Ford will not forget for the rest of his days.
A bigger test, however, came in the bottom of the fourth inning. Facing left-hander Andrew Heaney, who had come in to relieve the pitch-limited Glasnow to begin the frame, he had a high-leverage situation on his hands: two men out and two men in scoring position.
Heaney, to his credit, painted two beautiful strikes after going down 1-0 to Ford. His next pitch, a slider low and in, proved perfect bait for the Mariner rookie, striking him out to strand the runners and keep Seattle off the board.
Ford went 1-4 with two strikeouts in total, but his performance early on was a good sign for the young prospect as he gets a little playing time at the end of the year.
“Walter” Clears Five
Despite the late loss on Seattle’s part, the early half of the game was marked by some lockdown pitching from Logan Gilbert. He has some of the nastiest stuff in the Mariners rotation, and against the vaunted Dodgers lineup, he used every pitch of his arsenal to full effect.
Over the first three innings, Gilbert struck out three and walked none, with two coming on some splitters that seemingly dropped off the face of the earth as they approached the plate. The third of these early strikeouts was easily the most impressive, as he got Mookie Betts to swing over the top of a curveball and splitter in succession to strand Enrique Hernández at second with two outs.
Gilbert struggled a little with his command in the top of the fourth, walking Freddie Freeman to start off the inning, but the pitcher’s best friend came through to wipe the baserunner off the board, and a quick popout following the double play ended the half inning.
It was the fifth, however, when Gilbert blinked first. Miguel Rojas cracked a ball into right for what should have been a single had Dominic Canzone not misplayed the ball, and Los Angeles had a one-out double. Hernández fell victim to a splitter that died five feet in front of the plate, but one mistake was all it took to put the Dodgers out in front: a first pitch hanging slider to Dalton Rushing ended up halfway up the right field seats for a 2-0 Dodger lead.
Seattle’s hurler had only thrown 75 pitches up to this point, and usually, that would mean that he would go back out for another inning. However, with Seattle’s postseason position secure and the series against Los Angeles being something of an exhibition for both teams, manager Dan Wilson opted to save his arm and bring in the bullpen.
Julio Gets 30/30 Season
One of the hallmarks of the great all-around ballplayers in baseball is the ability to rack up both home runs and stolen bases. Traditionally, speed and power are abilities that do not often overlap, rendering those who can do both a special kind of remarkable. Willie Mays (660 homers, 339 stolen bases) and Barry Bonds (762 homers, 514 stolen bases) are some of those who reached the pinnacle of well-rounded success (well, before Bonds turned to “balanced breakfasts” at least), but in the modern game, one of these paragons of completeness is Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez.
From the instant his cleats first grazed a big league ballfield, he more than showed the chops for baserunning, with nine stolen bases in his first month in the Majors. May 2022 inaugurated the longball soon after, and his first year in the Show ended with 28 home runs and 25 stolen bases. Each of the following three years, including 2025, Rodríguez got at least a 20/20 season, while in 2023, he passed 30 in each category.
Coming into Saturday’s game, Rodríguez had 32 home runs and 28 stolen bases, just two bags shy of the second 30/30 season in his career. He got on base in the first inning thanks to a fielder’s choice and made quick work of his second 30/30 year, taking second and third on two consecutive pitches. He didn’t come around to score, but the accolade is another notch in Rodríguez’ belt, a piece of leather engraved with many accomplishments over his four-year career.
Polo Adds Three
A consistently underrated member of the Mariners offense is Jorge Polanco. The veteran hitter started getting a bit of recognition earlier in September, whacking double after double as Seattle’s torrent of victories began to gain steam, and his triple slash for the final month stood at .329/.375/.603 going into the penultimate game of the regular season.
He had already done his duty in the first, walking to continue the inning, and he came up in the fifth with Seattle in another prime position to do damage. Runners stood at first and second with just one out, Heaney in some serious trouble during his second inning of work. Los Angeles’ hurler got one strike away from sending Polanco back to the dugout, but his 2-2 curveball stayed above the knees.
Polanco jumped on it, sending a hard drive down the left field line. Conforto took off towards the ball but very quickly let up as it soared over his head and into the sea of hands underneath the manual scoreboard: Seattle’s 2-0 deficit became a 3-2 lead with one swing.
Evans Works Trio of Innings
It was a quick turnaround for Logan Evans on Saturday night, as he got reinstated from the injured list hours before first pitch and was given some relief duty in the late middle innings of the night’s action.
He relieved Gilbert in the top of the sixth and got three soft grounders to ease him through his first frame of work, but the seventh was a different story. It wasn’t a matter of hard contact as had been his bugbear earlier in the season; rather, it was that the ball fell away from the fielders one too many times, while one errant delivery was all Los Angeles needed to take the plate and tie the game.
The first bloop single was on the part of Michael Conforto, who found the grass in front of Randy Arozarena in left field. Evans got the next two guys out, including his only strikeout of the night against Miguel Rojas, but Hernández mirrored Conforto’s earlier hit by finding the grass ahead of Dominic Canzone in right.
Evans spiked a ball to Rushing with Conforto on third, and the Dodger left fielder scampered home to tie the ballgame. Evans limited the damage and worked a clean eighth inning, but the game was already beginning to slip out of Seattle’s hands.
Partial Muñoz Meltdown
He’s a man who has been rock solid for most of the season, but on Saturday night with a tie game in the ninth, he slipped badly. Six of his first seven pitches were balls as he walked the first two batters, and the dagger was struck by Enrique Hernández with one out.
Although his numbers in 2025 have been much reduced from his previous years of excellence, he still has some danger in his bat, and a slider intended for the outside edge found its way inside, belt-high, and down the left field line. Arozarena was unable to get to what ended up being a go-ahead two-run double for the Dodgers, the final piece of scoring in a back-and-forth game that—as so often happens this late in the year—went the way of the side with more accolades.
RISP Issues and Strikeouts
A big reason for Seattle’s loss on Friday against the Dodgers had been hitting troubles with runners in scoring position, where they went just 1-13—a killer in a close game like Friday’s.
These issues continued in Saturday’s ballgame. First and third with two outs went unfulfilled in both the first and second innings, while an improbably lefty-on-lefty double by Luke Raley to put two in scoring position with just one out also ended up going nowhere. The middle innings were breezing by, and yet the 1-13 with RISP had extended to 1-17 for the series. Despite Polanco’s blast with two men on, the team finished the game with a 2-19 RISP line.
Missed chances are one thing, but not having chances at all is a far worse beast. The last baserunner Seattle had was a leadoff walk from Randy Arozarena in the seventh, and although he stole second later in the inning, the baton was out of his hands.
Nine straight Mariners, including Arozarena, struck out swinging to end the 5-3 Saturday loss. Some, like Cal Raleigh, Dominic Canzone, Leo Rivas, and Arozarena himself were three-pitch punchouts. Others, like those of Eugenio Suárez and Harry Ford, were tougher fights for Los Angeles’ pitching. Perhaps most bizarrely, Julio Rodríguez struck out on two pitches, with strike one called due to a timer violation.
On Deck
There is just one more game in the regular season for all 30 teams in MLB, taking place on Sunday afternoon. It will likely be more chance for Harry Ford to show his big league chops, while for a whole host of Mariners, it will be an opportunity to rest.
For Cal Raleigh, it will be one more chance to etch a bit more history in a season for the ages. He seemed to be a little too focused on the longball in Saturday’s contest, however, going 0-4 with three strikeouts as he swung at some pitches well outside the strike zone. Whether he will get to 61 or more home runs is a story for Sunday, and perhaps the only thing that will be remembered from the Mariners’ 162nd game of the season.
