‘Tablesetter’ Mallex Smith reaches base 5 times, paces Mariners past Orioles
The tablesetter. That’s how Mallex Smith views his role in the Seattle Mariners organization this season.
“That’s what I’m here to do,” Smith said after pacing the Mariners in an offensive onslaught against the Orioles on Friday night. “Set the tone and get my team going.”
He started in the first, cranking a ground-rule double — that certainly could have been a triple with Smith’s speed if it stayed in play — down the right field line with the Mariners already staring down a three-run deficit after the top of the inning. He whipped around the bases on J.P. Crawford’s single the next at-bat to quickly cut into that Baltimore lead.
And, Smith just kept going from there. He singled twice more to finish 3-for-3, walked twice, recorded a pair of steals, reached base in all five of his plate appearances and scored four runs to help propel the Mariners to a 10-9 win at T-Mobile Park. It marked the club’s third consecutive win — the first time it has posted such a streak since late April.
“It’s just good energy, you know,” Smith said. “And, it reminds you this is the game of baseball. You go through your stretches. As long as you just continue to stay with one another, and play behind one another, things can change. Things will change.”
He made sure of it, and his historic game sparked his teammates. He is the fourth player in club history to reach base safely five times in a game, score three-plus runs and steal two bases, joining Ichiro Suzuki, Willie Bloomquist and Mark McLemore. His 21 stolen bases this season rank second in the majors, and he’s starting to close in on Kansas City’s Adalberto Mondesi (27).
“Mallex got it started from the get-go,” Crawford said. “He gets on, and I think it gives a fire to the whole lineup. ... It makes you want to hit. It makes you want to drive him in.”
Batting just behind Smith, Crawford recorded three hits in a game for the first time with Seattle, and matched a career-high. And Domingo Santana kept rallies going behind those two, bringing his RBI total to 57, which leads the American League.
“Just grinding out at-bats,” Smith said. “J.P. does a good job of that, and Domingo does a good job of that, and today the balls were going away from the defenders, and we were able to capitalize.”
Smith, Crawford and Santana combined to reach base safely 11 consecutive times in the game before any of them recorded an out. It wasn’t until the fifth inning, when Santana struck out in his fourth plate appearance, that one of the top three batters in Seattle’s lineup failed to reach base.
“It’s been fun to watch those guys when they get going,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said.
The momentum at the top trickled through the rest of the lineup, too. Rookie utility infielder Dylan Moore hit his third homer of the season to trim Baltimore’s lead to a run in the second before Smith singled, stole second, and scored on a Crawford single to tie the game at 3-3.
Seattle then seemingly broke the game open in the third. Omar Narvez singled with one out, and Kyle Seager earned a standing ovation from the crowd of 23,281 by crushing his fifth homer of the season to straightaway center to give the Mariners a 5-3 lead they never lost.
Moore walked and scored on Smith’s third hit of the game two batters later. Smith then advanced on Crawford’s third single, and stole third before a Santana double scored both runners to make it 8-3.
Later, an extra two tack-ons in the fifth proved necessary for the narrow win. Mac Williamson became the third Mariner in the game to homer with a solo shot, and after walking, Smith scored his fourth run on a Daniel Vogelbach single to stretch the lead to seven.
But, that early three-run spot to the Orioles, and a meltdown in the sixth inning nearly cost the Mariners all of that offensive production.
In what seems to be almost nightly occurrence, the Mariners gifted their opponent an early lead when starter Mike Leake (7-6, 4.54 ERA) gave up three runs on four consecutive hits in the first. Leake got the first of Seattle’s three double plays in the game to end the inning.
He settled in the next four frames, facing the minimum amount of batters in each, aided by another double play and both of his strikeouts in the outing.
At that point, Leake appeared on his way to a fifth consecutive quality start, but Baltimore piled on six hits and five more runs in the sixth, pushing Leake out of the game before the inning was over. He left the bases loaded, and Cory Gearrin eventually ended the threat with the Mariners still in front, 10-8.
“We’ve seen Mike,” Servais said. “It doesn’t really phase him. He gives up a couple in the first and he’ll come right back and throw some zeros up like he did tonight.
“The sixth inning, he just couldn’t quite get some balls hit at people. There were quite a few ground balls in that inning that got through, and the one up the middle that got through J.P. could have been an inning-ending double play, it just didn’t happen.”
Despite allowing the seven earned runs on 11 hits in just 5 1/3, Leake did still collect his 100th career win.
“Not everybody gets to accomplish it, so I’ll cherish it when I’m done playing probably more than now,” Leake said. “There’s still a full season to play.”
The Orioles got even closer in the seventh. Gearrin allowed two hits to open the inning before Austin Adams was called in. He gave up an RBI single, but notched his first of four strikeouts, and the Mariners converted a third double play to end the threat, still clinging to a one-run lead.
Adams then struck out the side in the eighth, and Roenis Elias fanned a pair of batters in the nine to nab his second save in as many games, and bring his season total to nine.
“Our bullpen has had some rough times,” Servais said. “We’ve had a lot of turnover in our bullpen. But, the guys stepped up tonight. Cory Gearrin did a nice job getting us out of the sixth, Austin Adams in the seventh and eighth, and Elias is kind of back on a nice roll again finishing some games off.
“Big night for our bullpen. They need those nights. We needed to lean on them heavily tonight, and they stepped up. It was huge.”
This story was originally published June 21, 2019 at 10:28 PM.
