Mariners take us on appreciation tour, eke out win against White Sox 4-3

It might not have been on the schedule, but tonight was a throwback night at T-Mobile Park. Friends, let me take you to a dark time called 2019. Logan Gilbert is still in High-A. George Kirby is stressing about his econ final. Bryan Woo has not been born yet. The youngest season-long member of the Mariners rotation is Marco Gonzales, who is the same age as tonight’s spot starter Jhonathan Díaz, at 27. Wade LeBlanc is our feel-good story, a crafty lefty whose domination of the Red Sox remains one of the Mariners highlights of 2018. Tonight’s game was a reminder of how spoiled we have become as Mariners fans to enjoy the historic level of pitching we’ve seen. Call it an appreciation tour, and definitely call it a comeback.

There were other throwbacks to the past, as well. Scott Servais doesn’t want to compare this Mariners team to any of years past, but it’s difficult not to see the parallels after a win like tonight’s, a game that, for all intents and purposes, the Mariners should probably not have won. But with some gritty pitching, Clutch Cal, and an assist from the White Sox themselves, the Mariners pulled out a classically Mariners 4-3 win, and this time without one of their regular starters. It probably shouldn’t have happened this way. But it did.

Starting for the White Sox: Drew Thorpe, inexperienced but one of the game’s better pitching prospects, armed with a best-in-class changeup, slider, cutter, and a fastball that comes in below-average velocity but tunnels so well with his other pitches that it can still fool hitters. Starting for the Mariners: Jhonathan Díaz, making a spot start in place of scheduled starter Bryan Woo (and depriving us of a Cal Poly alum matchup, featuring also Cal Poly alum Mitch Haniger, go Mustangs), whose best trick is being able to throw left or right-handed.

With about a day’s notice that he’d be returning to the big leagues for the first time since 2023, Díaz dodged and wove his way through 5.1 innings of work, a hair over what Scott Servais had hoped for. He worked ahead, throwing 19 of 23 first-pitch strikes, getting himself into good counts and trying to bait hitters into bad swings for weak-contact outs. At the end of the day, he went mostly toe-to-toe with the rookie Thorpe despite allowing three times as many hits. That’s why they call them crafty lefties, after all.

“They just told me ‘attack, attack the batter and try to get ahead in counts’” said Díaz postgame through translator Freddy Llanos.

The White Sox jumped on Díaz in the second inning, opening the inning with three straight hits (although the third one was a bunt base hit from Zach DeLoach, which shouldn’t count on, like, several levels). However, showing that veteran savvy that helped him pitch in the bounce houses of the PCL without succumbing to a double-digit ERA, Díaz managed to work his way through only allowing one run, on an RBI single to Martín Maldonado, continuing to torment the Mariners even in a different uniform.

The Mariners’ best hope in this game was to try to work on Thorpe’s pitch count, forcing the White Sox to put away their shiny new toy early and bring in that tasty bullpen, already beleaguered from last night. However, after a 12-pitch first inning, that didn’t look like it would be the case, as Thorpe cruised through the top of the lineup with ease.

The Mariners did a better job of working on Thorpe’s pitch count in the second inning, and even managed to tie the game up in the process. Luke Raley hit a one-out double, and Mitch Garver brought him home on a double of his own.

Both were hit solidly on fastballs, because Thorpe decided he couldn’t just throw the changeup 100% of the time, even though he definitely should have in my opinion. But hey, we’ll take it.

Unfortunately, that tie was short-lived, as the White Sox grabbed the lead right back in the top of the third, teeing off on Díaz for two home runs. However, once again the damage can be classified as “not as bad as it could have been”: the homers were both solo shots, and Díaz also stranded a runner after a single and stolen base. He posted his first clean inning in the fourth (having sensibly walked Luis Robert Jr. in the first), and another one in the fifth, which was all Scott Servais had hoped for out of his spot starter tonight.

The Mariners scratched another run off Thorpe in the third, thanks to a Cal Raleigh double, and more importantly started to work some longer counts off Thorpe, including a rare walk to Dominic Canzone and a less-rare walk to Mitch Garver, getting Thorpe to 76 pitches by the end of the fourth, and setting up the fifth as a pivot inning that might get Thorpe out of the game early, if the Mariners could just put a little pressure on him. Despite an eight-pitch battle from Josh Rojas, it seemed like the Mariners were set to go down quietly again as Julio hit a grounder towards third baseman Lenyn Sosa…who promptly airmailed the throw four feet over the first baseman’s head, for the second White Sox error of the day. Okay, maybe the White Sox should be relegated. (Julio would then steal his second base of the game.)

Thorpe got out of that jam by getting Cal Raleigh to ground out—and what a great experience for him—but with his pitch count teetering into nonagenarian territory, it was time for the White Sox bullpen to appear on the scene.

But first the also-beleaguered Mariners bullpen needed to appear, as Díaz opened the sixth giving up what would have been three-straight weakly-hit singles, except Korey Lee got forced out at second on a Zach DeLoach parachute shot, misreading a ball Julio slyly sold like he was going to dive and catch, which Servais later called one of the most underrated plays of the game.

Trent Thornton took over from there and cleared up the mess nicely, almost immediately getting Martín Maldonado to ground into a double play. Not this time, Martín! Thornton also pitched a scoreless seventh, striking out two and popping 97 on the gun. “Thorny is a very high-strung guy…he was feeling it tonight,” said Servais. “He had great rhythm out there, he was controlling the strike zone, he made some great pitches. It was really fun to watch.”

On to the White Sox bullpen, then. First up: Justin Anderson, who got two quick outs despite some not-great command before walking Mitch Garver. The White Sox, sensing a win within their clutches, called on Tanner Banks, who got pinch-hitter Tyler Locklear to immediately chase after a changeup for an easy groundout. Banks came back for the seventh and was spotted his first out on this “strikeout looking” to Ryan Bliss:

Enough of the White Sox Pity Zone, please, we are trying to win ballgames here. After J.P. Crawford grounded out, Banks walked Rojas on four not-close pitches, causing Pedro Grifol to decide to cut his losses and summon Elon alum John Brebbia from the bullpen. Brebbia immediately got Julio Rodríguez to ground out…I’m sorry what I’m being informed he did not ground out despite rolling a ball softly and seemingly directly at the second baseman. White Sox, what is you doing? That brought up Cal Raleigh, who did what Cal Raleigh does:

Where would the Mariners be without Cal Raleigh? Who, by the way, was also slogging along in the minors in 2018, failing to crack any major Top 100 lists on his way up, which I will simply Never Stop Shouting About. Cal had a green light there in a 3-0 count, which Servais called a “no brainer,” although he said not every hitter wants to be swinging 3-0. But Cal, he says, has a knack for those kinds of spots:

“He just doesn’t try to overdo it,” said Servais. “I think some guys get a little too anxious. They start seeing the finish line before they’re done running the race, so to speak. They get ahead of themselves. Cal doesn’t do that. He just stays in the moment and takes it a pitch at a time.”

With the Mariners in familiar territory clinging to a 4-3 lead, things got sticky in the eighth with Big Mike Baumann on the mound; he gave up a single, and then the runner made it to third with no outs thanks to a stolen base and an errant pickoff throw from Baumann, who apparently does that whichever direction he’s facing. But Big Mike buckled down, getting a groundout and a strikeout, and then Tayler Saucedo came in to polish off Danny Mendick, pinch-hitting for the lefty DeLoach. With the Mariners unable to get anything off lefty Tim Hill in the bottom of the eighth, they sent Ryne Stanek out to the mound to attempt his fifth save of the season, which suggesting worrying things either about Andrés Muñoz’s health or the Mariners’ fear of the White Sox’ bottom of the order. I choose to believe the latter. Stanek got the first two outs quickly before fighting pinch-hitter Gavin Sheets for eight pitches, eventually coaxing an easy flyout off his bat for the win.

“Timely hitting is everything. We’ve lived on both sides of that, and right now we’re living on the right side, and a lot of that has to do with Cal Raleigh in those spots,” said Servais, although he acknowledged his whole team has been stepping up lately.

“It’s a lot of guys who have really stepped up over the last couple weeks. You just see a different vibe about our guys as they’re walking up to the plate, as crazy as that sounds. The confidence is coming, they really are coming together, gelling together, and leaning on each other, and that’s what it takes.”

It was not a pretty win. But it allowed the Mariners to keep pace with the Astros, who also won tonight, and get some additional breathing room on the Rangers, who were utterly squelched by the Dodgers. More importantly, it was also not as ugly as those dark games of 2018, 2019, and all the other years while we impatiently waited for our rotation to spring to life in full terrifying form, like a chamber of golums or Chia Pets armed with 95 mph heaters. Tonight is a good reminder of how far the Mariners have come in a few short years, and how much there is yet to go.