Turn ahead the clock, but same Mariners. Edwin Diaz secures their sixth consecutive victory
Felix Hernandez trotted out to the field with his cap backward, ears studded and his jersey untucked. This was the apparent future, the Seattle Mariners turning ahead the clock in 2018 to 2027 by turning back the clock to when they first turned ahead the clock in 1998.
Confusing? Maybe.
But the takeaway should be that the Mariners’ breakout 2018 season was not a one-year wonder.
Mitch Haniger was still driving in runs, Nelson Cruz’s arms were still massive, Felix Hernandez still struggled in the first inning before bouncing back after that and Edwin Diaz was still electric Edwin Diaz, even on what was apparently supposed to be June 30, 2027.
On Turn Ahead the Clock Night, the Mariners quickly rallied from a three-run deficit and held on for a 6-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday at Safeco Field.
“Interesting night,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Different look, different unis. Turned out OK.”
The game featured interplanetary score updates from Pluto vs. Saturn, holograms and sleeveless in Seattle jerseys – but, just like that 2018 season, more Mariners wins.
Seattle (53-31) pushed its win streak to a season-high six consecutive games, Diaz earned his major-league leading 31st save of the season and the Mariners pulled to within 1.5 games of the Houston Astros in the American League West standings.
The Mariners haven't been this many games above .500 since the end of the 2003 season (93-69).
Hernandez said he pitched despite almost unbearable back soreness. He didn’t sit the entire game and had a heat pack on it between innings, exiting after five frames and 81 pitches.
“It was real bad,” Hernandez said. “Been like that the last two days. I tried to go out for the sixth inning and (Servais) said no.”
He said he tweaked it performing deadlifts during a recent workout.
“He wanted to go back out, but sometimes you have to take that out of his hands,” Servais said. “We thought the bullpen was rested with (Marco Gonzales’) complete game last night. We felt good about going to them.”
James Pazos, Juan Nicasio, Alex Colome and Diaz combined to allow one run over the final four innings, and it was unearned in the seventh after an error came around to score.
The Mariners are now 2-0 in 2027 after earning their first of that year in 1998.
Edgar Martinez is the only person to wear a Turn Ahead the Clock uniform in two separate centuries, once as a player on that 1998 team and now as the Mariners’ hitting coach.
The Mariners stuck to their black sleeveless uniforms with red undershirts, except if you were Cruz, Denard Span, Ben Gamel, Guillermo Heredia, Dee Gordon or Alex Colome, who went sun’s out, guns out (even though there was no sun with the Safeco Field roof closed).
Hernandez said he didn’t dare try to copy their 37-year-old slugger.
“I don’t have those arms,” Hernandez said, though few do. “I was in awe of those on TV. I was like, ‘Wow.’”
Ryon Healy went 4-for-4, tying a career-high in hits, so he got to be the official judge of who wore the uniforms best. He gave respect to Gordon, who wore his cap backward, jersey untucked and even painted his bat for the occasion.
“I can’t leave Dee Gordon out because he put so much effort into it,” Healy said. “I respect the heck out of him for it.
“But Nelson Cruz – my goodness. Can’t really deny that. He takes home the trophy, but Dee gets an honorable mention.
Cruz was born to go sleeveless.
“Without a doubt,” Healy said. “We need to make that a regular thing because that’s pure intimidation. Nelson is more humble than we’d like him to be.”
There were also futuristic advertisements, DeLorean races (in the place of the Mariners’ usual hydroplane races on the videoboard), Gordon vowed he’d run for president in 2027 while he is still playing baseball (he said he’d make that work) and an Interplanetary Tallies board that listed Saturn crushing No. 1-draft-pick-bound Pluto, 21-0. Also, future headlines read that Seattle’s traffic would still be the worst in the galaxy and the Seattle SuperSonics won the 2027 NBA Finals behind Gary Payton Jr.
Oh, and Ken Griffey Jr. sent a message via hologram.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Vacationing on Europa, it was great to have Junior join us via hologram.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TurnAheadTheClock?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TurnAheadTheClock</a> <a href="https://t.co/aRJSACp06C">pic.twitter.com/aRJSACp06C</a></p>— Mariners (@Mariners) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mariners/status/1013269765488406528?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 1, 2018</a></blockquote>
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But there was also a Mariners game.
And a 3-0 Royals lead after the top of the first inning.
Umpire John Tumpane told Hernandez to turn his cap around, though Hernandez left his jersey untucked and proceeded to allow four consecutive hits to lead off the game, including Mike Moustakas sending a sinker into orbit and over the left field wall for a three-run home run.
“I made some mistakes in the first inning and they got three straight hits,” Hernandez said. “But after that you just have to settle down and stick with it and make good pitches.”
But apparently it isn’t just home runs, walks and strikeouts in baseball’s future, though neither of these starting pitchers, Hernandez and South Kitsap graduate Jason Hammel, made a particularly strong case to keep “openers” out of baseball’s future
The Mariners answered with Haniger’s double in the bottom of the first and Jean Segura scored from first base.
They tied it in the second when Healy launched a two-run home run and Mike Zunino followed two batters later with a sacrifice fly after Ben Gamel’s triple for a 4-3 Mariners lead – just like that.
Healy tied a career-high with four hits in the game, including a run-scoring single in the third inning after Denard Span’s RBI double to give the Mariners’ a 6-3 cushion.
That’s right, the Mariners went from a 3-0 deficit to a 6-3 lead in the span of three innings – just continuing their comeback habits, even in 2027, nine years after a 2018 that saw them tied for the third-most wins in the major leagues entering July.
“Living the dream, man,” Hernandez said. “I’m having fun. This is the best team I’ve ever been on. I love these guys. They are pretty good. They don’t quit, they all grind. It’s fun.”
A few takeaways:
'Dude, this is the future'
When Felix Hernandez exited after the fifth inning, he did so after pushing his season total to 100 1/3 innings pitched.
He hadn’t pitched more than 100 innings in either of the past two seasons because of injuries and trips to the disabled list. That was after eight consecutive seasons before that of reaching at least 200 innings.
“I’m healthy,” Hernandez said. “That’s the good thing. If I’m healthy, I can do good things.”
Though he wasn’t healthy in Friday’s game. He said he couldn’t sit because his back was causing him so much pain after it tightened up on him during deadlifts in a recent workout.
Although, he seemed just as concerned that umpire John Tumpane wouldn’t allow him to wear his hat backward on the mound like he wanted to, forcing Hernandez to turn it forward.
“He said it was too much of a distraction,” he said. “The jersey out, the hat backward, the earrings …
“Before he said something I was like, ‘Dude, this is the future, OK? We got this.”
Hernandez is now the fourth Mariners pitcher to throw more than 100 innings already this year (joining Mike Leake, James Paxton and Marco Gonzales) after they had only three pitchers surpass that total all of last year (Ariel Miranda, Paxton and Yovani Gallardo).
Hernandez didn’t allow a run after that 24-pitch first inning, exiting after five. He allowed six hits, walked one and struck out five. He exited after 81 pitches (55 strikes).
Healy heats up
Ryon Healy entered the game in a 1-for-23 slump. Then he tied the game in his first at-bat of this one, sending a two-run home run over the wall in left-center field.
That was his 17th home run of the season and he’d add an RBI single in the third inning and two other hits later, tying a career high with four hits.
“He had a tough couple games in Baltimore and here and Ryon is really hard on himself,” Servais said. “So everybody is happy to see him put the last couple behind him and move forward and swing the bat really well.”
Play of the game
A case could be made for the top of the eighth inning.
The Royals had two runners on against reliever Alex Colome and trailed, 6-4, when Adalberto Mondesi, the son of former big-leager Raul Mondesi, sent a hard ground ball to the right side.
Dee Gordon is maybe one of the few second basemen who are able to range to that ball. He dived to his right, collected the ball and threw to second for the force out to end the inning and save a run.
Top batter
Ryon Healy tied a career high with four hits, finishing 4-for-4 with a two-run homer, an RBI single and two other hits.
That homer was his eighth of the month, pushing him to 17 for the season, though he’s continually noted out for being overly hard on himself.
Not that this night is going to rid him of that.
“I don’t like having one ‘aha’ moment,” Healy said. “It’s nice, it makes you breathe a little easier. I’m definitely too hard on myself, definitely a perfectionist and it’s definitely one of my bigger flaws in this game in a game full of failures. But I’m young and still trying to learn every single game and there’s a ton of leadership in this clubhouse that I definitely lean on on some of the harder days. It’s nice to have that available here.”
Top pitcher
Felix Hernandez did rebound from a three-run homer to Mike Moustakas to pitch four scoreless innings after that.
But Edwin Diaz pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 31st save of the season to lock it down after the Royals mounted some action in the seventh and eighth innings. Diaz had 34 saves all of last year.
Quotable
Scott Servais was asked about his favorite non-game highlight of the Turn Ahead the Clock night.
“I think talking Nelson Cruz to go up with no undershirt on was pretty cool,” he said. “I mentioned it to him earlier in the day and he took it and ran with it. He’s a beast. That’s all you can say. He’s a fun guy to have around.”
TJ Cotterill: 253-597-8677
@TJCotterill
This story was originally published June 30, 2018 at 9:53 PM.