Mariners are both lucky and good, defeat Diamondbacks 6-1

Mariners are both lucky and good, defeat Diamondbacks 6-1

It’s hard to find anything really objectionable about the Arizona Diamondbacks. They scrap along in the NL West, fighting the legacies and deep pocketbooks of the California teams, but without the haplessness of the Rockies, which inspires more disgust than it does pity. When they win it feels like triumphing over titans, which makes them easy to root for. They roster, generally, players both likable and good, including some former Mariners and hometown prince Corbin Carroll. So rooting against them always feels a little dingy, especially in a game like tonight—a short but, it must be said, brutally umpired affair where it felt like the luck dragons all flew in the Mariners’ direction.

The Mariners had a clear strategy against Zac Gallen: be aggressive early on the fastball, and try to keep him away from his secondary stuff. That was made clear right from the first inning, when Josh Rojas jumped on the first pitch he saw from Gallen, who was trying to steal a first-pitch strike against his former teammate and left a fastball right in the middle of the plate that Rojas crushed for his fifth career leadoff home run:

Postgame Rojas said he adjusted his mindset as a leadoff hitter, knowing that there was a “99% chance” he’d get a fastball first pitch, although he said he thinks the difference only applies in that first at-bat, when pitchers are more heater-heavy—otherwise he’s just trying to do what he does as a nine-hole hitter, keep the line moving. But he did say he might have a little insider info as someone who had talked strategy with Gallen when the two were teammates.

“It was kind of a cool experience for me to be on the other side and think, ‘all right, I’ve picked his brain, so let’s see what he’s going to try to do to me.”

However, that kind of thinking can also be a trap, as Rojas thought for sure Gallen would try to get him to chase curveballs in his second at-bat, and instead “blew some fastballs by me.”

“But you know, it’s a fun part of the game.”

In the second inning, Mitch Garver joined the solo home run party with a shot of his own, again getting a fastball over the plate that he was able to just keep fair past the left field foul pole.

The Mariners’ aggressive approach resulted in a lot of contact that might not have gone for hits, but was largely long, loud, or both. But that hard contact might have been a canary in the coal mine for Gallen, who had to leave with a trainer in the middle of an at-bat against Julio after issuing a leadoff walk to Josh Rojas (it was later announced he’d left the game with right hamstring tightness.) RightyScott McGough came in to replace Gallen and Julio greeted him with a single shot out of a cannon through the 3-4 hole, followed by a walk to Cal Raleigh to load the bases with no outs.

Then, Mitch Haniger unloaded them:

That’s Mitch Haniger’s first home run since July 9 of 2021, when as a Mariner he hit a go-ahead grand slam against the Angels. We love some Classic Mitch.

As much fun as grand salami time is—rye bread, mustard, things of that nature—Servais and Haniger were both careful to note postgame that Haniger didn’t walk to the plate thinking homer, instead focusing on trying to get a pitch he could drive far enough to get the run in from third and stay out of the double play. In doing so, Haniger laid off three splitters—one very borderline in the aforementioned amorphous zone—to force McGough to come onto the plate with a fastball: something he could drive, and he did.

“I really appreciate the starting pitching and what it does for us—it gives us the chance to win every night,” said Servais postgame. “But keeping our offense moving in the right direction is really key because we haven’t even scratched the surface of how good we can be offensively. Home runs help, but when everyone’s doing the right thing up and down the line, it makes a huge difference.”

While the offense was working, the Mariners were able to keep the NL reigning champs quiet offensively, with Emerson Hancock surrendering just one run—a solo homer—despite allowing some loud contact outs. Hancock worked around some poor location, getting outs on an easy flyout from Ketel Marte on an fastball in the middle of the plate Marte just got under, and a pair of double plays that wiped out a hit by pitch in the first and a sharply struck (106.6 mph EV) leadoff single from Christian Walker in the second. He also survived a command outage in the fourth, walking back-to-back hitters to open the inning but rolling yet another double play—his third in four innings—to get out of trouble.

What made Hancock effective tonight was when he challenged hitters in the zone and stayed aggressive, not trying to nibble too much on the edges, getting hitters to chop his sinker into the ground for easy outs. Hancock’s secondary stuff remains a work in progress—he threw 11 sliders tonight and got one called strike and just two swings on the pitch, but he was able to pick up more whiffs and outs on the changeup as he went deeper in the game. Despite the sterling line on paper, it still feels like Hancock is battling to stay alive against MLB hitters, similar to when Bryce Miller hit start four or five in the big leagues and had to start figuring things out on the fly.

But tonight, Hancock was able to stay just ahead of the Diamondbacks lineup, going through its own version of growing pains as reigning NL ROTY Corbin Carroll has been scuffling through an early sophomore slump—despite the cheers from a warm hometown crowd, he was 0-for-3 with a strikeout tonight, although he was far from the only problem area as the DBacks only scraped together three hits on the night. Eugenio Suárez was greeted warmly by the cheering crowd at T-Mobile Park, and took a moment to acknowledge the crowd in true Geno fashion:

But, good vibes aside, Suárez would finish the night 0-for-3 with two strikeouts, while his replacement at third, Josh Rojas, had a home run, a walk, and no strikeouts. The Diamondbacks’ only run of the evening tonight came from an unlikely source, when Kevin Newman muscled a Hancock fastball over the fence for a solo shot of his own. Ironically, this wasn’t one of Hancock’s more poorly located pitches of the night, a sinker inside that Newman was able to turn on and pull to left-center.

The Diamondbacks did leverage one of those hits well in the ninth inning against Cody Bolton, in for some low leverage work as he continues to work his way back from a battle with kidney stones. With one out, Ketel Marte singled, and then Bolton issued first a one-out walk and then a two-out walk to load the bases, bringing up Eugenio Suárez, and suddenly the low leverage work wasn’t so low leverage. The Mariners got Muñoz up to warm.

In a bittersweet ending, Suárez grounded out to third, thrown out by his replacement in Seattle to end the game. I feel how frustrating this game must be for a Diamondbacks fan: your best starter leaves hurt (adding to an already alarming rash of injuries), the zone is wildly inconsistent and often in a way that seems to benefit the other team, hapless at-bats against a so-so starting pitching performance, and the added sting of seeing your former third baseman hitting home runs and throwing out your current third baseman. I know all these feelings because I’ve felt them at times from the other side. But also, with the Rangers winning tonight, the Mariners needed this win to keep atop the AL West, as they continue to emerge from a 6-10 start. Sometimes there’s only so much room on the luck dragon.