New arrival Tyler Anderson continues to exceed expectations in Mariners rotation gap

After Marco Gonzales dominated the Rangers last week with a two-hit complete game, Tyler Anderson began watching film.

He faced Texas just the day before, and tossed 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball. But Gonzales, a fellow southpaw with a familiar pitching style, had shut down Texas entirely.

Anderson wanted to know what pitches worked, and what pitches didn’t. He wanted to know which batters to attack, and which batters to avoid. He’d face the same Rangers team again in the coming days, and knew adjustments would be necessary.

On Tuesday, Seattle’s newest starter put his newfound plan to the test, and carried out his best start to date in a Mariners uniform: a six-inning, one-run gem.

Anderson had earned his first win as a Mariner.

It may be only four starts into Anderson’s brief Seattle career, but the Mariners have received much more than a back-of-the-rotation contributor out of a July 27 trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Acquiring Anderson wasn’t the “splash” many advocated for Jerry Dipoto to make as general manager before the deadline. It wasn’t even the biggest move that day. Just hours earlier, Mariners reliever Kendall Graveman had packed his belongings and walked to the opposing Houston clubhouse at T-Mobile Park.

What Seattle instead aimed to do — and has successfully done with Anderson, to this point — was add a left-handed arm to a rotation decimated by injury. It alleviated Seattle’s need to throw a given starter on every fourth day, and though it was Dipoto’s sole “rental” trade before the deadline, the move signaled that the Mariners weren’t punting on the final 60 games of the season.

Anderson arrived in Seattle sporting a 4.35 earned run average throughout his 2021 campaign with Pittsburgh. His role was to keep the Mariners in ball games — not to win them on his own.

The latter is precisely what the former Pirate has achieved through four appearances. His outing on Tuesday propelled Seattle to a 3-1 win, and he’s spent his time on the mound keeping the Mariners within postseason striking distance, even if the offense continues to sputter.

“We needed another starter,” Manager Scott Servais said. “Not a ‘big name guy,’ per se, but a guy that just comes in and does his job and gives you a chance. ... Tonight, we got more than that.”

That’s been the case with Anderson throughout his first weeks with the club. The six-year veteran owns a 2.91 earned run average in a Mariner uniform, and each of his four starts have improved on the last. In his Seattle debut — a July 31 start in Arlington — Anderson did not receive a decision, despite lasting 5 1/3 innings and allowing three runs in an eventual walk-off loss.

That outing, even if it lacked a make-a-name-for-myself stat line, kept the Mariners in the game through the final frames. He appeared next in the Bronx, allowing two runs to the Yankees across five innings.

And before Anderson’s T-Mobile Park debut on August 11, Scott Servais called his shot. He told reporters that Anderson would go five or six innings, keep the team in the game, and that the result would be, as usual, a close one.

Anderson’s consistency may have helped Servais predict the future — as does his ability to take the ball away from his starters as he pleases — but the skipper was right on the money. Seattle won the game 2-1, Anderson tossed 5.1 innings of one-run ball, and, as predicted, the Mariners won a close game.

“We’re in every game, even the games that we lost,” Anderson said after Tuesday’s win in Texas. “It’s fun to go out there and compete, knowing that everybody’s doing the same thing. Everybody wants it, so it’s fun.”

Anderson knows himself, Servais said. He doesn’t give in, or allow free bases. In three of his four Seattle starts, Anderson did not issue a single walk.

He locates his fastball and paints corners to work ahead in counts. On the rare occasion that he falls behind, he’ll use a changeup or cutter to get out of a jam.

“He’s got a little bit of a funky, deceptive delivery,” Servais said in the hours after the trade that brought Anderson to Seattle. “He’s kind of got the double-leg kick thing, which can goof some guys up a little bit.”

And his timing could not have come at a better time, either. While Seattle’s pitching continues to dominate, the bats have cooled. The team sits at 9-7 for the month of August, but have mustered only 3.7 runs per game. Anderson — the entire staff, moreover — has kept Seattle afloat.

The team’s earned run average this month — an impressive 2.52 — tops the American League, and trails only the Los Angeles Dodgers for the best in all of baseball.

Servais admits that the offense needs to step up. Bolstering leads in the final frames would relieve pressure for a pitching staff that has carried the load of late. Whether the bats heat up is yet to be seen, but a dominant month for the collective group has done the job, and Anderson has played a critical role.

“It’s a credit to him,” Servais said. “And hopefully we keep riding him, because he’s been really good every time he goes out.”

This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 11:17 AM.