Miles Mastrobuoni helps Mariners outlast Rangers in 12 innings

ARLINGTON, Texas — It seemed fitting that after Miles Mastrobuoni made the catch that saved the game for the Mariners he provided the swing that sent them home, eventually, with a victory.

Mastrobuoni made a terrific sliding catch down the left field line to end the 11th inning, then came through with a two-out RBI single on an 0-2 pitch in the 12th as the Mariners finally held on for a 7-6 win over the Texas Rangers before 30,228 at Globe Life Field on Friday night.

“Just find myself in there late and just trying to do whatever to help the team win,’ Mastrobuoni said.

Help, he did.

Mastrobuoni lined a single off Shawn Armstrong to left field and Randy Arozarena was able to barely slide under the tag of Jonah Heim after a strong throw by Ezequiel Duran from left. Texas challenged the call, but replay upheld the decision of home plate umpire Austin Jones.

The hit came after Armstrong started the at-bat with a sweeper and a sinker that left Mastrobuoni in a hole.

“Once I got to two strikes, it was kind of just battle and just get the bat on the ball whatever way I can,” he said.

While the hit will get its share of attention, the catch Mastrobuoni made minutes earlier deserves equal if not more praise. Mastrobuoni came on as a pinch-hitter in the 10th inning and took over at third base for Ben Williamson. With the bases loaded and two outs, Corey Seager sliced a pop up into shallow left field. Arozarena wasn’t getting there. Shortstop J.P. Crawford was shifted toward second base. Mastrobuoni was the only player with a chance at making the grab.

“I knew it was kind of going to be a no man’s land. I thought it was a little too far from me off the bat. And then I just kept running after it. I took a peek down real quick to kind of see where I was, where Randy kind of was and I knew it was going to kind of be up to me,” Mastrobuoni said.

At a full sprint, Mastrobuoni was able to get underneath the pop up and went into a slide along the left-field chalk as it fell into his glove. He popped up with a fist pump and some excitable words that were clear to anyone that could read lips.

It was the kind of play the M’s desperately needed after watching a 5-1 lead slip away. The M’s have the pitching talent to make a four-run lead stand up in most circumstances. And with how Logan Gilbert was cruising through the first five innings, a 5-1 lead seemed safe.

But Gilbert stumbled in the sixth going through the top of the Rangers order for a third time and old friend Sam Haggerty pulled the Rangers even at 5-5 with a two-out RBI single in the seventh.

The problem was the M’s inability to add on earlier in the game and a rash of double plays off their bats. Seattle hit into five double plays, including two by Arozarena, and went 4 for 23 with runners in scoring position. Donovan Solano provided one of those with an RBI single in the 10th that gave the M’s a 6-5 lead, only to see Texas tie it in the bottom of the inning.

The M’s churned out 16 hits against the Rangers pitchers, but managed to leave 14 runners on base.

It was a recipe that begged for an impactful play like what Mastrobuoni made if the M’s were going to erase the taste of how the final two games of their series in Minnesota played out.

“It’s a really tough play and he’s the only one that can get to it. He’s going a long way for it because of where he’s playing,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said. “That’s the ballgame.”

The M’s received excellent relief work from Casey Legumina throwing 1 1/3 innings with three strikeouts, including a key punch out of Marcus Semien to end the seventh inning. Matt Brash worked around a bad-luck single leading off the ninth and struck out Josh Smith — on a tantalizing changeup — and Haggerty to send the game to extras.

Eduard Bazardo tossed the final two innings of relief and struck out Josh Jung to finally end it.

“I’m just trying to get those three outs and the way that third out came, being able to get that strikeout, I don’t know, just a crazier feeling of being able to get out of that jam,” Bazardo said via interpreter Freddy Llanos.

Gilbert seemed on the verge of his best performance since coming off the injured list due to his flexor strain. Almost all his pitches were working, minus a slider that stayed middle to Seager and was clubbed for a solo home run in the first inning.

But Gilbert ran into trouble in the sixth and five batters later was out of the game after Semien doubled and Garcia’s two-run single that pulled the Rangers within 5-4.

Texas continued its rally in the seventh when Smith doubled with two outs off Gabe Speier and Haggerty followed with a grounder up the middle on a 1-2 pitch to bring the Rangers even at 5-5. All those missed opportunities and runners left on base earlier in the game became significantly more amplified.

Gilbert was pulled after 5 1/3 innings, allowed four runs and struck out seven.

“I thought (he) was really in control. It just unraveled for him fairly quickly in the sixth,” Wilson said. “Couple guys on, couple hits, a couple seeing-eye ground balls too. So not like they were hitting them all over the ballpark, but you could just feel that momentum in the game shift a little bit.”

On the day he announced his plans to participate in the Home Run Derby during All-Star week, the Rangers were determined not to let Cal Raleigh add to his league-leading homer total. Raleigh was walked in each of his first three at-bats, twice intentionally for the first time in his career.

Raleigh eventually got his chance to take some hacks. He doubled in the sixth inning and his long fly ball in the eighth inning allowed Crawford to tag up and advance from second to third.

In the 11th, with runners on first and second and no outs, Raleigh struck out swinging through a slider from Luke Jackson. He finished the night with the odd stat line of 1 for 3 with a double, a strikeout, two intentional walks and one conventional walk.