Kikuchi quality, Crawford crushes late 3-run homer to lift Mariners past Rangers
Three unplanned days off this week didn’t slow down the Mariners, who collected their third consecutive win, topping the Rangers, 6-3, in their four-game series opener Friday night at T-Mobile Park. Seattle has now won nine of its past 13 games.
Playing for the first time since Monday’s win in Anaheim, after their scheduled three-game series against the A’s was postponed following a positive COVID-19 case in the A’s traveling party over the weekend, the Mariners (16-22) grabbed an early lead, kept it in tact behind a quality night from Yusei Kikuchi, and got some needed late insurance on a J.P. Crawford three-run homer to open this delayed homestand.
Kikuchi was solid in earning his second win in as many starts, and posting his second quality outing of the season. It was his best since he tossed six shutout innings against the A’s last month with a season-high nine strikeouts.
“I thought Kikuchi got really good results,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said in a postgame video call. “The process wasn’t exactly what we were looking for as far as dominating the zone tonight, but he had really good stuff. Many at-bats he was not out ahead, he was falling behind, but his stuff was so good he was able to get through it.”
This start wasn’t as crisp early in counts as the earlier outing against Oakland, but Kikuchi did enough to retire the first 10 batters he faced in order before allowing one of the two hits he gave up on a Isiah Kiner-Falefa single in the fourth. The Mariners promptly turned a double play to get out of the inning without damage.
“I had quite a bit of 3-0 counts today, but I was able to get guys out with my cutter,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Kevin Ando. “The infield definitely helped a lot on defense.”
Kikuchi’s only meaningful mistake came the following inning when Jose Trevino hammered a solo homer to deep left. But, all that did was cut the Mariners’ lead to 3-1 at that point.
Kikuchi regrouped to retire his final five batters faced, completing the six innings with seven strikeouts. He did not walk a batter for the second straight start.
“Because he is gifted, he’s got good stuff, he is able to get through it,” Servais said. “But, the focus part of that early in counts needs to get a little bit better. But, give him credit. He executed late in counts, got some big outs for us and he threw the ball well.”
The Mariners have also seen Kikuchi sustain the uptick in velocity he built up during the offseason.
“Yusei’s mindset is so different this year,” Servais said. “He knows what to expect. He’s been in the league now. He knows how to prepare. I do think he’s one of the guys ... benefiting from the extra day. The six-man rotation has been very, very big for Yusei. It’s what he’s used to doing in Japan and the stuff, it’s been there from Day 1 of spring training. He made a few adjustments way back in the offseason, and it’s paid off for him. All year long it’s been really good.”
The Mariners capitalized early to put Kikuchi in line for his first win at T-Mobile Park this season. Kyle Seager drew a leadoff walk in the second and eventually scored when Ty France, in his first at-bat as a Mariner, sent a base hit to left.
Seattle then loaded the bases in the fourth when Seager was hit by a pitch, France walked and Jose Marmolejos singled. Evan White crushed a double off the wall in left to score two of the runs and give Seattle a 3-0 lead.
White finished 2-for-2 with a single, double, two walks and the two RBI.
“Evan is starting to settle in,” Servais said. “The swing decisions are really the big thing for me. He’s got power, he has a good swing, swinging at the right pitches, he’s been very aggressive of late. You can see the confidence growing from at-bat to at-bat.”
Crawford widened the gap in the eighth. White singled, Sam Haggerty walked and Crawford crushed a two-out, three-run homer to right to give the Mariners a five-run cushion. It was his second homer of the season.
Making his first appearance out of the bullpen this season, and first relief appearance of his career since 2014 with the Blue Jays, Kendall Graveman tossed a scoreless seventh in his first appearance since being activated from the injured list.
Graveman, who has been dealing with neck discomfort caused by a benign bone tumor in his cervical spine, had been pitching at the club’s alternate site in Tacoma, working to return as a reliever after landing on the IL the first week of August following his second start.
He was stellar in the new role and tossed a 1-2-3 inning in the seventh, including striking out Joey Gallo looking at a 97 mph slider on the outside edge of the plate for the final out.
“That was a lot of fun,” Graveman said. “Blessed to be back out there. It’s been a little roller coaster here for a little bit, but just so thankful that I’m able to do what I’m doing right now. A lot of fun. A lot of fun tonight.”
Rookie reliever Anthony Misiewicz followed up Graveman’s performance with a 1-2-3 eighth.
Veteran Yoshihisa Hirano closed out the win despite allowing two more Rangers runs on a Nick Solak sac fly with the bases loaded, and a Gallo single to beat the shift.
This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 9:07 PM.
