Mariners move on after trades, beat Red Sox 6-2 as Andres Munoz comes through
Following the oft-used adage of “the ball will find you,” the moment was going to find the Mariners and Andres Munoz in the late innings on Monday night at T-Mobile Park.
That’s the best part about baseball and the karma that it provides, testing a player’s will and a team’s conviction.
About four hours before George Kirby’s first pitch was fired against the Boston Red Sox, the Mariners finalized a trade that sent veteran reliever Paul Sewald, who handled most of the ninth-inning situations, to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for three players.
In his pregame media session, Mariners manager Scott Servais listed off pitchers who might take over Sewald’s role, mentioning they would play the matchups and not have a true closer.
But really, everyone in attendance, and even those who have watched the Mariners over the past two seasons, knew that the responsibility would fall on the broad and square shoulders of Munoz.
And the baseball gods made sure the Mariners were put into a precarious position.
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Clinging to a one-run lead in the top of the eighth inning with two outs and runners on first and second, the “save” situation was happening an inning early.
Servais called on Munoz to face Alex Verdugo to get the final out and then three more in the ninth.
Showing no signs of his struggles on the previous trip, Munoz outlasted Verdugo, striking him out swinging on a nasty slider, much to the delight of the 32,665 in attendance.
As for that save situation, well, the Mariners flipped the script on the obvious storyline, scoring four runs in the bottom of the eighth and removing the potential for any high-leverage drama in what would be a 6-2 victory.
“The game’s on the line, in my opinion, in the eighth inning,” Servais said. “You’ve got a 2-1 lead and you put your best reliever in the game at that point. He was certainly capable of going back out for the ninth if we had not added on. But I thought it was critical that we stop it right there. So, you bring our best reliever in, it doesn’t matter if it’s righty or lefty in there (batting).”
Of course, baseball wouldn’t let it be that easy. With Isaiah Campbell pitching in the ninth with a 6-1 lead, the Red Sox scored a run and put pair of runners on base with two outs. They were a ball or a hit away from the tying run stepping into the batter’s box in the form of All-Star Rafael Devers.
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But J.P. Crawford made a lunging, tumbling grab of a rocket line drive off the bat of Masataka Yoshida to end the game.
“Heck of a play by J.P. to end it,” Servais said. “Nobody was more happy to see it go in his glove than me and probably Isaiah Campbell.”
With the win, the Mariners improved to 55-51. It’s the first time they have been four games over .500 this season. Seattle has the same record as the Yankees and sit a half-game back of the Angels (56-51). They are 3.5 games back of the third wild-card spot.
On a day when the Sewald trade could’ve been an emotional distraction, the Mariners put their focus on the game.
“Everybody loved Paul,” said Cal Raleigh. “He brought a good energy to the clubhouse, and he taught a lot of the younger guys in the ‘pen how to do it. He’s a professional always. It’s unfortunate to see him go and we wish him the best of luck, but it’s out of our control. We can look at it two ways: We can pack it in, or we can keep going and trying to make this thing real and kind of prove them wrong.”
George Kirby gave the Mariners a pitch-filled, five-inning outing that didn’t have a single 1-2-3 inning. He allowed one earned run on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.
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He threw a whopping 97 pitches in those five innings with 63 strikes, which featured 12 whiffs, 12 called strikes, 12 balls in play and a whopping 27 foul balls, including 14 on his four-seam fastball.
“They fouled off a lot of pitches and made me work,” Kirby said. “If they are an inch or two out, they are swings and misses. I executed them well. They just fouled them off. I’m not going to change anything.”
His lone run allowed came in a first inning that was anything but normal.
Facing Red Sox leadoff hitter Jarren Duran, Kirby got up 0-2 on his first two pitches of the game. But six pitches later Duran was jogging to first base after starting the game with a walk. It was the first time this season Kirby walked the first batter of the game and the fourth time in his career.
Then things went from odd to ugly.
Taking advantage of a deliberate delivery to home from Kirby, Duran got a massive jump on a stolen-base attempt moments later. In a hurry to make up for it, catcher Tom Murphy didn’t get a good grip on the ball and threw very high to second base. The ball went over Jose Caballero’s head and into the outfield.
Seeing the ball in the outfield, Duran was out of his slide and headed to third. Center fielder Julio Rodriguez picked up the wayward throw and fired to third base to get Duran. But Eugenio Suarez couldn’t make a play on the ball and it went for another error, allowing Duran to race home.
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Since there were no outs when the play occurred and Devers, the fourth hitter in the inning, singled to right field, it was an earned run for Kirby.
Raleigh tied the game in the second inning, hitting a towering solo homer to right field off Red Sox starter Nick Pivetta.
Raleigh got to Pivetta again in the seventh inning, crushing another solo homer to right field for a 2-1 lead. The multihomer game gave Raleigh 16 homers on the season.
Using his curveball heavily, Pivetta struck out 10 Mariners hitters and limited the damage over the first seven innings. But Seattle tacked on more in the eighth. Cade Marlowe looped a double to left with one out and Caballero was hit by a pitch. The Red Sox went to lefty Joe Jacques, who walked Crawford to load the bases. Rodriguez ripped a first-pitch slider to right field to score a pair of runs.
“I just was trying to stay up the middle because he’s a heavy sinker guy,” Rodriguez said. “I was able to stick to that plan and it worked.”
Suarez and Teoscar Hernandez each added RBI singles.
Source: The Seattle Times
