Drama? What drama? Mitch Haniger's first walk-off keeps Mariners rolling with 13-inning nailbiter over Rays
The Seattle Mariners have yet to fully find an offensive groove since Robinson Cano’s suspension, which should say just how much Robinson Cano meant in the heart of this lineup.
Until they figure it out, Mariners manager Scott Servais already called it – there will be many close, dramatic games.
Not that they seem to mind.
In their longest game of the season, Mitch Haniger yet again delivered – this time with his first career walk-off home run.
It traveled to one of the deepest parts of the ball park, hitting it the other way to right-center field in the cold Seattle night that was approaching Saturday morning. He gave one giant leap into home plate with his teammates waiting to cap the 4-3 victory in the bottom of the 13th inning against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday.
“That was fun,” Haniger said. “Just happy to end the game to be honest with you.”
A little more than fun for Servais.
“I cannot believe Mitch Haniger hit the ball out in that part of the park,” Servais said. “Folks who have been at Safeco late in the game when it starts to cool … for a right-handed hitter to drive the ball out opposite field – he got all of it. He really killed it. And that’s exactly what we needed to get over the hump tonight.”
Servais let out and exhale before talking to media postgame.
This was the Mariners’ fifth walk-off win, they improved to 6-0 in extra-innings and their 17 one-run wins lead the majors.
Haniger leads the Mariners with 12 home runs. Ten of them have come in the seventh inning or later this season and that, easily, leads the majors.
So drama? What drama?
“Our guys know that if we can just kind of keep them at bay we have a chance,” Servais said. “It says a lot about our guys hanging in there.”
The Mariners (35-22) soared back up to a season-high 13 games above .500 and remain a game back of the Houston Astros in the American League West.
The Mariners also got a look at their new eighth-ninth inning combo of Alex Colome and Edwin Diaz. Colome led the American League in saves a year ago (47). Diaz entered Friday leading the major leagues with 19 saves. They picked up Colome planning for close games to come.
They will have better nights.
Colome, facing his former team for the first time since they traded him to the Mariners last week, hit a batter, but escaped the eighth unscathed.
Diaz not so much.
He struggled with fastball command for the second consecutive appearance, after he allowed a career-high four runs in the Mariners’ 9-5 loss to the Rangers on Tuesday. Diaz walked Joey Wendle on six fastballs, though he followed by striking out Wilson Ramos (with Wendle stealing second base).
Wendle reached third on a wild pitch before Danny Duffy singled him home. Tie game.
Then extra innings.
The Mariners had their best chance in the 10th inning. Nelson Cruz sent a charge 337 feet the opposite way to right field.
Just off the wall. Just short of a walk-off home run.
Cruz slid head-first into second base for a double, but two outs later the game headed to the 11th inning.
It took two more innings, but Haniger eventually provided that walk-off shot the Mariners were looking for.
Roenis Elias, in his first appearance on the Safeco Field mound since Oct. 3, 2015, when he was starting, pitched two scoreless innings to secure this, pitching the 12th and 13th innings. He also earned the win, and allowed two hits with a strikeout.
Apparently he was cleared to throw about 100 pitches. This was his day to start for Triple-A Tacoma before he was recalled earlier in the day.
“I was ready to go 100 pitches,” Elias said.
“I just thank God for this opportunity and it’s great that I’m healthy and able to help them win.”
Let’s restart.
Some teams like to use an “opener” for a starter.
The Mariners? They’ll keep riding their starter-starters.
Mike Leake pitched seven innings and allowed two runs – back-to-back homers in the fifth inning – with a season-high eight strikeouts. This came one start after he tossed a season-high eight innings in the Mariners’ win over the Twins on Sunday.
The Rays were a bit more unconventional.The Rays were a bit more unconventional.
They used what some have dubbed an “opener,” in right-hander Sergio Romo. It’s a term coined as an ode to the closer role at the backend of the bullpen, except the “opener” is used to pitch through the first inning or so to give the team’s actual starter a soft landing heading into the game.
Instead of their young starter, Austin Pruitt, introducing himself to the Mariners’ top of the order, the Rays used Romo to pitch to the first five batters before the Rays brought Pruitt out of the bullpen to face No. 6-hitter Ben Gamel and pitch the next five innings.
Gamel singled, but Pruitt induced two ground balls to end the second inning unscathed. This allowed Pruitt to get a feel for his pitches against the bottom of the order instead of the top.
So the rationale goes.
Maybe it took an extra two innings for the actual Rays’ “starter” to face the top of the Mariners’ order. But no difference.
Jean Segura, Kyle Seager and Nelson Cruz hit back-to-back-to-back singles – all with two outs – as Segura scored to give the Mariners’ a 1-0 lead in the third inning.
Gamel led off with a triple the next inning before Ryon Healy singled him home.
Center fielder Mallex Smith apparently didn’t get enough of a feel for Safeo Field’s outfield … during his 77 minutes as a Mariner. He was with the Braves on Jan. 11, 2017, before heading to the Mariners in a swap for minor leaguers before 77 minutes later the Mariners traded him to the Rays in a deal that brought pitcher Drew Smyley to Seattle.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The pregame ceremony begins at 7:02.<br><br>It will conclude at 7:02:08. <a href="https://t.co/e3FZ8VfnCk">https://t.co/e3FZ8VfnCk</a></p>— Mariners (@Mariners) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mariners/status/1002610819589214208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 1, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Back to the game.
Smith missed when he dived for Gamel’s liner toward left-center field, allowing Gamel to slide into third base with a triple. He dived and missed, again, two batters later on Guillermo Heredia’s line drive, allowing Healy to reach third.
David Freitas gave the Mariners a 3-0 lead on his RBI groundout.
How about Mike Leake?
He had a season-high eight strikeouts by the fifth inning and by that time he had retired 11 consecutive batters dating back to the first batter of the second inning.
Then trouble.
Leake threw a first pitch cutter right down the middle of the plate to Rays right fielder Carlos Gomez, who rocked it out to left field for a solo home run. He threw another cutter four pitches later to Johnny Field, who treated it similarly to Gomez, sending it over the left field wall for back-to-back home runs.
That cut the Mariners’ lead to 3-2.
But Leake was solid, otherwise, doing his inning-eating thing and finishing after seven, having allowed the two runs on six hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.
That’s the fourth time Leake has pitched at least seven innings in a start so far this season, tied with James Paxton for most of those outings on the team.
He also had some big defensive plays behind him. Kyle Seager made stabbing, turning plays at third base in the fifth and sixth innings, as well as an unconventional 6-3-4 double play, with Segura playing the right side of the infield on a shift, freezing Matt Duffy between first and second before getting Brad Miller for the force at first base. Healy then threw to Gordon at second who applied the tag for the inning-ending play.
A few takeaways:
Diaz struggles
Edwin Diaz entered Friday leading the major leagues with 19 saves and looking to become the first to 20.
He’s had dominant moments, but he’s also been used more than any closer in the major leagues and this was his third blown save.
He struggled with fastball command his last outing, when he tied a career-high four runs allowed in Tuesday’s 9-5 loss to the Texas Rangers, when he entered to a 5-5 tie.
Some of the same this time. He walked the first batter he faced, Joey Wendle, who stole second, reached third on a wild pitch and eventually tied the game on Matt Duffy’s single.
That was also the theme of the Mariners’ bullpen struggles in losses to the Rangers on Tuesday and Wednesday – allowing the first batter to reach. It’s certainly something Servais tracks in an organization that stresses controlling the strike zone.
In Diaz’s defense, the Red Sox’s Crag Kimbrel entered the day second in the American League with 18 saves and he had blown two saves. Same for the Rockies’ Wade Davis.
Blast from the past
On Oct. 3, 2015, Roenis Elias pitched two innings in a start for the Mariners before exiting after allowing four runs.
He was back in a Mariners uniform for the first time since then on Friday.
The first batter he faced? Rays first baseman Brad Miller, who was also playing for the Mariners in that Oct. 3, 2015, game at Safeco Field.
The Mariners recalled Elias from Triple-A Tacoma earlier Friday after re-acquiring him in a trade in late April from the Boston Red Sox.
Miller flew out to center field.
Gamel heating up
Ben Gamel batted .121 in 12 games in April, after he was activated from the disabled list and missed almost the first month of the big-league season with a strained oblique.
Now he seemed warmed up.
Because he’s looked much like the hitter who went on a tear with the Mariners after being called up from Triple-A Tacoma last season. He went 3-for-5 on Friday with a sliding, leadoff triple in the fourth inning before scoring the Mariners’ first run.
Since the calendar turned to May, Gamel is hitting .361 (26-for-72) to up his season batting average to .279.
This was also Gamels’ second three-hit game this season.
TJ Cotterill: 253-597-8677
@TJCotterill
This story was originally published June 1, 2018 at 11:30 PM with the headline "Drama? What drama? Mitch Haniger's first walk-off keeps Mariners rolling with 13-inning nailbiter over Rays."