Mariners able to hold on late to win game one against the Athletics
By Bel Garcia
Seattle, WA - Seattle’s head-to-head win streak against the Athletics continues, their streak now at 13 wins stems back to July 23rd of 2021. The batters shared the wealth this game as JROD (Julio Rodriguez) started us off with the first homer of the night, continued by Cal Raleigh, and Eugenio Suarez. The Mariners can once again celebrate a win and how good it feels that it was at T-Mobile Park. Seattle starts their homestand off the right way.
Starting pitcher Marco Gonzales’ pitching line was 5.1 IP, 5 ER, 3 K, 0 BB. (Photo Mat Bermudez)
JROD starts the show
It was at the bottom of the third that the Mariners would get their first runs on the board, with a three-run homer by Julio Rodriguez. JROD hit a bomb that traveled 376 feet to right field, scoring Ty France and JP Crawford. That homer was Rodriguez’s first at T-Mobile Park. He is now the youngest player to homer at T-Mobile Park since Fernando Tatis Jr., who homered on August 7th, 2019. Julio also becomes the youngest Mariners player to homer since Jose Lopez on September 13th, 2004. Rodriguez continues to show us that he is no longer playing like a Rookie and can make an impact on the game with much more than stolen bases.
Julio Rodriguez steps into the batters box (Photo Mat Bermudez)
Suarez and Raleigh join the show
A busy 4th inning saw the Athletics score three runs of their own to tie the game, with the help of a Chad Pinder 400 foot homer. We were now headed to the bottom of the 4th with a tie ball game. It was Cal Raleigh who joined Julio Rodriguez with a homer of his own, this one traveling left 364 feet and bringing Luis Torrens home as well. The Mariners took the lead back with a score of 5-3 going into the 5th inning, where Eugenio Suarez would join in with his own homer. A hit to left field for 374 feet that would help in bringing Julio Rodriguez home from first base to increase Seattle’s lead to 7-3. At this time, it felt like you could see a win on the horizon, but the game was far from over as the Athletics had another big inning in the 6th to cut the lead to one.
Eugenio Suarez flips his bat (Photo Mat Bermudez)
For the next three innings the score did not change, it was tough to see the game be that close given the Mariners current struggles. Seattle had chances to maximize on having the bases loaded twice in the game, but those efforts fell short. However, this was a hard-fought win, and they were able to hold off the Athletics from getting to base in the 7th inning, when Diego Castillo struck out 3 players to begin the 8th. Sewald would seal the game for the Mariners, and once again there is hope that they can ride this effort to a series win.
Four of Cal Raleigh’s five hits this season have been home runs (Photo Mat Bermudez)
Game two of the series is tomorrow at 6:40PM PST, as young George Kirby will take the mound. Seattle will look to string some wins together during this divisional homestand, having lost six of their last eight games.