Teoscar Hernandez makes his former team pay as Mariners walkoff against Blue Jays
First base was open if the Blue Jays wanted to intentionally walk him. They know Teoscar Hernandez better than other players on the Mariners roster. They know what he’s capable of and also what he’s susceptible to in the batter’s box.
Maybe they would see if he’d chase at something out of the zone early and then put him on if he got ahead.
With two outs and backup catcher Tom Murphy standing in the on-deck circle and switch-hitting catcher Cal Raleigh ready to pinch hit, it still seemed like a logical strategy in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth with runners on second and third.
Hernandez’s former team opted to pitch to him with the game on the line.
It was a mistake.
Looking for something up in the strike zone, Hernandez was ready for the first-pitch slider from Toronto closer Jordan Romano. He stayed on the pitch away, sending a line drive over the head of right fielder George Springer and off the wall for a game-winning single in the Mariners’ 3-2 walkoff victory over the Blue Jays in front of crowd of 42,352, including many Toronto fans.
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“Fun game,” manager Scott Servais said. “I think everybody got their money’s worth. We haven’t had one of those in a while. Obviously, a lot of electricity in the ballpark tonight with all of our visiting friends from up north, but we’ll take it and move on to the day game tomorrow.”
Did Hernandez think that Blue Jays manager John Schneider might walk him?
“I did think that for a little bit,” Hernandez said.
Schneider defended his decision.
“You’ve got your best guys in there, and you feel good about those guys. They’ve performed so well the entire season,” he told reporters. “You have all the faith and trust in the world in those guys. And Teo hit a pitch that was up in the zone a little bit. You like that matchup, Jordy vs. anyone really.”
Hernandez never left the batter’s box after making contact, watching Springer furiously retreat on the ball, hoping to save his team from defeat. The ball was simply hit too hard. Hernandez screamed at the dugout. While it looked like he forgot that he still had to run to first base for it to be official as Jose Caballero trotted home with the winning run, Hernandez knew what he was doing.
“Oh no, I was enjoying it, every single bit that I could enjoy, especially because we won the game. For me, that’s all that matters,” he said. “The emotions come through and you just let them go.”
But was it just a little sweeter given who the win came against?
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“Yeah, you’re always trying to do good against the team that you were with,” he said. “But don’t have anything negative to say about them and it’s nothing personal either. It just that the emotions are high and I was enjoying the moment.”
Traded from the Blue Jays to the Mariners this past offseason in exchange for reliever Erik Swanson and pitching prospect Adam Macko, Hernandez struggled when Seattle traveled to Toronto in late April. He went 1-for-12 with a homer, a walk and seven strikeouts.
After playing six seasons with the Blue Jays, the emotions of returning to the Rogers Centre were overwhelming and distracting.
“It’s hard to describe it,” he sad. “It was a lot of things going on, a lot of emotions, a lot of things that I went through in that city, especially on that team. And it was hard for me to not think about everything that was gonna happen during that series.”
Servais even told Hernandez to “take a deep breath and try to have fun” before the game.
The Mariners were able to have a chance at a walkoff win thanks to a brilliant inning-ending double play in the top of the eighth. With one out and the bases loaded, Taylor Saucedo got pinch-hitter Alejandro Kirk to hit a slow roller to third. Eugenio Suarez charged the ball and fired off balance and across his body to second baseman Kolten Wong, who then fired to first for the final out.
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“Geno has had a fantastic season defensively,” Servais said. “It’s his ability to make throws off-balance and on-target. The whole key to the double play is you’ve got to get it to the second baseman and give him a chance to turn it. Huge play. It’s the only shot you’ve got at turning a double play there to get us out of it and we were able to get it done.”
Blue Jays starter Yusei Kikuchi, a former prized free agent signing for the Mariners, delivered one of his better outings this season, albeit somewhat truncated.
Kikuchi pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings, giving up five hits — four of which never left the infield — with a walk and eight strikeouts.
The Mariners never really made Kikuchi feel any sort of pressure on the bases or in their at-bats, which in the past would make him wilt. They never even put a runner in scoring position against him.
On May 16, 2022, Kikuchi delivered one of his few good performances in an otherwise forgettable season. Pitching at the Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays actual home stadium, Kikuchi tossed six shutout innings, allowing just one hit — a double to Jesse Winker in the fifth inning — while walking three batters and striking out six.
Seattle got an almost equally good outing from rookie Bryce Miller, who was making his second start after coming off the injured list.
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Miller pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing just one run on three hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
With the velocity on his fastball dropping 2-3 mph from the first pitch of the game, a trend that has increased this season, the Mariners pulled Miller after 75 pitches. Servais said before the game that they wouldn’t push him too far due to his overall usage as well as the blister issue that put him on the injured list before the All-Star break.
Miller’s lone mistake came in the fifth inning when Danny Jansen ambushed a first-pitch fastball that was only 93 mph and on the inner half of the plate, sending a solo homer into Edgar’s Cantina.
The Blue Jays pushed the lead to 2-0 in the seventh inning. Daulton Varsho led off with a soft infield single off Gabe Speier. Varsho stole second, advanced to third and then later scored when rookie reliever Prelander Berroa, who was making his MLB debut, uncorked a slider in the dirt that Tom Murphy couldn’t glove or block for a wild pitch.
Seattle answered with a run in the bottom of the inning.
Ty France worked a leadoff walk and advanced to third on AJ Pollock’s double into the left-field corner. Mike Ford followed with a bloop single to left that allowed France to score and Pollock to move up to third. However, the Mariners wouldn’t get another run. Pollock was thrown out at home on Jose Caballero’s soft ground ball to first. Later, with two outs and the bases loaded, former Mariner Erik Swanson struck out Eugenio Suarez to end the inning.
Seattle tied the game in the eighth. Tom Murphy, who had struck out in his three previous at-bats, dropped in a single to left to start the inning. France followed with a double into the left-field corner that rolled around just enough to allow Murphy to score from first base and tie the game.
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Source: The Seattle Times
