Mariners rebound from first-inning triple play to beat the Rangers and continue hot streak
In the superstitious world of baseball where streaks can be snapped by wearing the wrong socks, where no-hitters can be jinxed by merely mentioning them and everything seems to be a an omen, the first inning of Kristopher Negron’s first game as interim manager of the Mariners didn’t portend to positive outcomes when Jesse Winker, the unluckiest hitter on the team and perhaps all of baseball, hit into a triple play three batters into the game.
Surely doom was certain to find a depleted Mariners team that was without three players, two coaches and manager Scott Servais due to positive COVID tests … not quite.
Starting pitcher Logan Gilbert, channeling his Mr. Hyde-like alter-ego known as Walter, would suffer none of that supernatural nonsense.
The lanky right-hander delivered another strong outing, tossing 6 2/3 scoreless innings and Mariners hitters continued to amass a multitude of base runners, eventually providing enough run support to offset reliever Diego Castillo’s flirtation with disaster in a 4-2 win.
The Mariners won five of their last six games to improve to 7-5 and will go for a sweep of three-game series of Texas on Thursday evening with Marco Gonzales getting the start.
So about that first inning of Negron’s nascent MLB managerial career.
Gilbert shrugged off a pair of one-out hits by getting Mitch Garver to ground into a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play.
Facing Texas starter Dane Dunning, a sinker-throwing right-hander, the Mariners had the first two batters reach base with Adam Frazier drawing a walk and Ty France singling to left.
It brought Winker, who came into the game with the odd stat line of a .143 batting average with just five hits in 35 at-bats and a .362 on-base percentage aided by a league-leading 12 walks. Beyond the raw data, Winker has suffered through some bad luck. He had a pair of sure run-scoring doubles robbed on the previous road trip and watched as the marine layer of the Puget Sound swallow up hard fly balls he thought were either homers or extra-base hits.
So of course, his hard, sinking line drive to the right side of the field was gloved by first baseman Nathaniel Lowe just above his shoe tops. With both Frazier and France running on the possible ground ball, Lowe casually stepped on first base for the second out. With Frazier on third base wondering what had happened, Lowe flipped the ball to shortstop Corey Seager, who stepped on second base for the third out and the Rangers’ seventh triple play in club history.
Lowe could’ve easily stolen a piece history for himself and ran to second base to make it an unassisted triple play, which has only happened 15 times in MLB history.
It was the 10th time the Mariners have hit into a triple play.
Winker could only shake his head in disbelief. His 101-mph line drive ended the inning.
But the Mariners, following their trend to recent success, continued to flood the bases with runners, believing a hit with runners in scoring position would eventually happen.
That first run came in the third inning when Abraham Toro doubled with one out and scored on Cal Raleigh’s hard ground ball to first base that Lowe couldn’t handle for an error.
The Mariners tacked on three more runs in the fifth.
Frazier led off the inning with a double and scored on Ty France’s single to left field, which ended Dunning’s evening. France scored on J.P. Crawford’s sac fly to center to make it 3-0. And Winker, who picked up his sixth hit of the season on ground ball to the left side of the infield just out of the reach of a diving Brad Miller earlier in the inning, scored on a sliding play at the plate following Julio Rodriguez’s single to center.
After giving up a two-out double in the seventh to Adolis Garcia, Negron lifted Gilbert for Anthony Misiewicz, who got the final out.
Gilbert’s final line: 6 2/3 innings, six hits allowed, no walks and four strikeouts. He’s allowed just one run in 16 2/3 innings pitched for a 0.54 ERA, lowest in MLB among starting pitchers.