8/30/22

Mariners 9, Tigers 3

(Detroit, MI) After a six-game homestand where the Seattle Mariners played good baseball but left something to be desired offensively, they woke the bats up in game one of their six-game road trip in Detroit. The bats got going early and George Kirby was dominant once again in what turned out to be a nice and relaxing start to the series.

During the broadcast, it was talked about how difficult it was to hit home runs in Comerica Park. There had been fewer home runs in Comerica than in any other stadium this season. The Mariners sure made it look easy and they didn’t need very much time to hit their first. Ty France continued to come out of his skid in the top of the 2nd as he hit a deep home run to center field for his 16th home run of the season. Just like that, the Mariners had a 1-0 lead.

The top of the 3rd was when the Mariners really poured it on. Cal Raleigh would lead off the inning with a no-doubter to right for his 19th home run of the season which is the most by any catcher in baseball. Now up 2-0, Seattle got dialed in on the young righty for Detroit in Matt Manning. Abraham Toro would single in his first plate appearance since being called back up. Julio Rodriguez would then double to put runners on second and third with nobody out. Jesse Winker would strikeout but then the game would turn into a hit parade. Mitch Haniger would get it started with an RBI single to left to score Toro. Eugenio Suarez got in on the fun with an RBI single to left to score Rodriguez. Ty France would get his second RBI with a base hit to left to score Haniger. Carlos Santana would then walk to load the bases with still only one out. Former Mariner Will Vest would take over on the mound for the Tigers, but it would not stop the Mariners offense. Adam Frazier singled to center to bring in Suarez and keep the bases loaded. Cal Raleigh would then step up to the plate for the second time in the inning and would hit a sacrifice fly to center to score France. Toro would strikeout to end the inning, but the damage was done. Seattle would score six runs on seven hits to blow their lead up to 7-0 going into the bottom of the 3rd.

The scoreboard remained the same headed into the top of the 5th. A third base hit by Ty France would have a man on first with one out. Carlos Santana then chased a ball up and out of the zone but still hit it a very long way. Kerry Carpenter turned and watched it fly into the left field stands for Santana’s 12th home run of the season. The M’s were now flirting with double digits with a 9-0 lead.

George Kirby continued to dominate in the ball game his entire outing. He only got in trouble once in his five innings of work and that was in the bottom of the 5th. With the bases loaded with just one out, Kirby would get Willi Castro to pop up on the infield to Eugenio Suarez at third for an easy second out. Riley Greene would hit a deep fly ball to Julio Rodriguez in center, but it was put away without any trouble to end the inning. With such a big lead, Kirby was done after five shutout innings after allowing just two hits, both by Miguel Cabrera, and one walk with five strikeouts.

In the bottom of the 6th there was a very cool moment for a Seattle pitcher. Chris Flexen came on in relief of Kirby and pitched what looked like an easy 1-2-3 inning in a blowout. That inning meant so much more. That inning of work put Chris Flexen over 300 innings pitched as a Seattle Mariner. In doing so, Flexen triggered an option in his contract that put him under contract for next season and netted him $8 million as well. Flexen is a fan and clubhouse favorite as fans took to social media to celebrate keeping Flexen for another year and his teammates all congratulated him in the dugout. Flexen struggled with the Mets before heading to Korea to pitch in the KBO League. The Mariners decided to take a shot on him and it has paid off as in two seasons with the team, Flexen has pitched 303.2 innings with a 3.73 ERA. One of the top backend starters in all of baseball will be a Mariner in 2023. It was a special moment for him.

The Tigers wouldn’t go down without some noise on offense. In the bottom of the 8th, Willi Castro would hit a leadoff single to bring up Riley Greene. One of the Tigers hottest hitters and brightest prospects, Greene would triple to the gap in right center to easily score Castro from first and put the Tigers on the board. A sacrifice fly by Zack Short to Jesse Winker two batters later scored Greene and made it 9-2.

Flexen would look to finish the 9th and give the Mariners the win. A one out triple by Kerry Carpenter put a little bit more pressure on him. Jeimer Candelario then singled to center to score Carpenter to make it 9-3. The Tiger catcher Tucker Barnhart would then hit an infield pop-up to Jake Lamb at third, who came in as a pinch runner for Eugenio Suarez, for the second out. Flexen would then finish off a big night for him with a strike out of Willi Castro to finish things off and give the Mariners a 9-3 victory.

Seattle (71-58) was not the only Wild Card team to win on Tuesday. Tampa Bay defeated Miami 7-2 and Toronto knocked off the Chicago Cubs 5-3. However, Baltimore would lose to Cleveland 5-1 to give Tampa Bay, Seattle, and Toronto some more breathing room in the Wild Card. The Rays still hold the top spot just half a game ahead of the Mariners. Toronto sits in the final Wild Card spot just half a game behind Seattle. Baltimore and Minnesota are now tied but both teams are on the outside looking in as they sit 3 games behind Toronto and 3.5 behind Seattle. Game two between the Mariners and Tigers will start at 4:10 on Wednesday as Marco Gonzales (9-12, 3.97 ERA) looks to build off a strong start against Cleveland as he takes on a young lefty in Tyler Alexander (3-8, 4.83 ERA) for Detroit.

Matt’s Takeaway

As Mariner fans we all needed this one after an emotional and intense series with Cleveland. The M’s built up a big lead in the 3rd and we were able to cruise from there. This is what this team should be doing in this series with Detroit. The pitching should keep the Tigers off the scoreboard for the most part and this is an opportunity for the offense to get right and they did in game one. Ty France looks to have his confidence back and Cal Raleigh and Carlos Santana will hit a bomb when you need them to. Kirby throws nothing but strikes and Chris Flexen deserves his extra year and extra money that he will now get. J.P. Crawford and Sam Haggerty are expected to start in either game two or three which is a welcome sign for the M’s after Dylan Moore went on the IL. A dominant win helped all of us lower our blood pressure a little bit.

Notable Performences

Mariners

• Ty France- 3-4, HR, 2 RBI, 3 R
• Cal Raleigh- 1-3, HR, 2 RBI, R
• Carlos Santana- 1-3, HR, 2 RBI, R, BB
• George Kirby (W, 6-3)- 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO

Tigers

• Kerry Carpenter- 2-4, 3B, R
• Riley Greene- 1-4, 3B, RBI, R
• Matt Manning (L, 1-2)- 2.1 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO

Updates

• The Mariners placed utility man Dylan Moore on the 10-Day IL with a right oblique strain. Obliques take time to heal and this is devastating news for D-Mo at an awful time as the Mariners push for the playoffs. Hopefully Moore can get back on the field and enjoy the playoff push.
• In a corresponding move, Seattle recalled INF Abraham Toro from Triple-A Tacoma. Toro is returning from a stint in Tacoma to try to fix his offense and he would record a hit in his return.