Wacky late innings snap Mariners win streak at eight as Seattle finishes road trip with 8-2 record
By Charles Hamaker
Chicago, IL – There would be no ninth win in the Seattle Mariners streak, as the team's offense struggled until it was too late, and the Chicago White Sox picked up a victory in the tenth inning of the game on a wild play that saw Tim Anderson in a pickle. The Seattle offense failed to get things going until too late, as Chicago starter Michael Kopech looked better than he should have, and the Mariners bullpen wasn’t able to hold things down with the little run support that had been given to them late. It’s a frustrating and unfortunate way to end their ten-game road trip and eight-game winning streak, but overall, the team shouldn’t have the worst flight home after a successful stretch.
Kirby ends outing with a snag
Mariners starting pitcher George Kirby was looking for a bounce back effort after a somewhat disappointing (by his own standards, that is) outing against the Royals earlier in this road trip. Outisde of the third inning where the White Sox stacked up three hits to score their first run and the sixth inning where he gave up a two-run homer on his final pitch of his outing, Kirby did a good job at getting through the Chicago lineup in the efficient way that George can. He didn’t walk anybody, the Kirby special, but the eight hits that this team got against him was obviously not something that George wanted to surrender, given the sort of frustration that could be heard in his voice postgame. Three runs aren’t great, and especially not by his own standards, but it’s definitely winnable and his offense once again did not help him enough.
When looking at his outing on the mound in terms of his pitch arsenal, Kirby saw velocity decrease in every pitch he threw except for his slider and spin rate decrease in every pitch except for a sinker, which he’s only credited with throwing twice. He is tabbed with throwing a four-seam fastball, slider, splitter, curveball, and that sinker. Of the 17 whiffs that he generated during this outing, nine of them came on the slider, which is nice to see, but that slider is also the pitch that White Sox left fielder Trayce Thompson tagged for the two-run homer. Of the 16 balls that Chicago hit into fair territory, seven of them were hit hard with five of those seven being fly balls.
Offense wakes up late
Of course, with many Mariners fans, the focus is placed on the bullpen and what transpired late as Andres Munoz and Seattle ultimately couldn’t hold things down in the late innings to secure a sweep. That focus instead should be steered towards the offense not being able to do anything against the White Sox until the seventh inning, when Chicago had already built up a three-run lead. That three-run lead was certainly something that this Mariners offense could overcome, but the fact that the hole was created in the first place by the Seattle batters not being able to take advantage of Kopech’s poor control and were striking out as much as they were, is frustrating. I won’t call it concerning considering that this game comes at the end of a ten-game road trip and was in the heat in Chicago, with the Mariners likely looking to get home, but it’ll be concerning if we see similar efforts during the upcoming homestand.
Seattle did have some threats early into this game, having Julio on third base in the first, Josh Rojas on second in the second, Eugenio on third in the third before going quiet until the seventh inning. The seventh inning saw Jose Caballero steal second and third base before scoring on a Josh Rojas base hit to get the Mariners on the board, before finally pushing through in the ninth inning behind a bases loaded hit by pitch as Julio Rodriguez took one off the hand (and avoided serious injury because of a protective guard). Eugenio Suarez singled to drive in two more runners, and Seattle had a lead finally. They wouldn’t be able to do anything in extras in frustrating fashion as Mike Ford was on third and Josh Rojas got to second, but that is an example of the Mariners struggles from today’s game. They left a total of 14 runners on base and went a dismal 4-18 with runners in scoring position. It’s an exact copy of the struggles on offense they’ve faced all season, failing to drive in the runs when they’re on the bases.
‘Pen report
Seattle went with four right-handed relievers after starter George Kirby was done for the day, and it’s hard to fault three of those four considering they put up hitless and scoreless performances. Trent Thornton came in solely to get the last batter in the sixth inning after Kirby’s outing was done thanks to that homer, Luke Weaver dazzled and he’ll get his own paragraph, while Munoz struggled in this high leverage situation and Justin Topa really can’t be criticized because of the kerfuffle that took place on the base paths. All in all, Munoz had a tough time against Chicago late as the first batter that he faced hit a double, being scored by Andrew Benintendi who singled as a pinch hitter. The White Sox had struggled all series to hit the fastball, and instead of Munoz delivering that heater of his to fool batters, his slider struggled and as a result, Chicago was back in this ballgame into extras.
Luke Weaver just may be another product of the Seattle pitching factory, and even that might be getting ahead of myself considering that this was his first appearance with the club after he was claimed by the team in the offseason and sent back out into the world. The Mariners saw something in Weaver that they liked and decided to bring him in, and if today’s performance is any sign of what things are to come, you can say “Chills, Dipoto did it again.” The cutter that Luke deployed in his two innings of work that generated five strikeouts definitely caught the eye of many. Weaver generated nine whiffs on the day, which is good for the second best in this game behind only Kirby. And, fun to add, no batter hit a hard ball into fair territory against Weaver.
Quick notes
José Caballero is the 4th rookie in Mariners history to record 25+ stolen bases in a season:
José Caballero (25+, 2023)
Julio Rodríguez (25, 2022)
James Jones (27, 2014)
Ichiro Suzuki (56, 2001)
Julio Rodríguez extends his hitting streak to 9 games, batting .511 (23x45) with 7 R, 5 2B, 2 HR, 13 RBI, 2 BB and 7 SB during that span (8/13-c).
Eugenio Suárez has 5 go-ahead RBI in the 9th inning-or-later this season, tied for the most in MLB
He's joined by Kyle Tucker-HOU and Joc Pederson-SF.
What’s next?
Following today’s loss and 8-2 overall record across their ten-game road trip, the Mariners will head back home and get Thursday off before kicking off a six-game homestand to close out the month of August. That homestand begins on Friday, August 25th, when Seattle starts another series against the pesky Kansas City Royals on Apple TV+ with a first pitch time of 7:10PM PST. The Mariners are slated to have rookie right-hander Bryce Miller on the mound under the bright lights, taking on Royals veteran Brady Singer. After seeing their second eight-game win streak of the month snapped today, Seattle looks to begin a new one on Friday.