M's on the road recap: Seattle continues to have hiccups, but positive signs are visible
By Charles Hamaker
Philadelphia, PA and Toronto, ON and Oakland, CA – The Seattle Mariners saw some continued struggles throughout the course of a tough nine-game road trip, but the team did display some good signs that could spur some hope going forward. Just like their last homestand, Seattle went 5-4 on the road trip in another wild ride of a stretch. The Mariners had some key contributions from players who you wouldn’t have expected to even see on Opening Day, as Easton McGee and Bryce Miller made big starts for the ballclub, and unlikely batters stepped up at the plate. Seattle remains near the bottom of the division, but there are some building blocks that could be big for the team moving forward.
Seattle Mariners shortstop JP Crawford throughout the season so far (Photos by Bryan Saldana)
Feeling the heat against the Phillies
The trip began in the city of brotherly love, as JP Crawford took on his former team. The Mariners gold glove winning shortstop had an excellent series, but his teammates did not. In the first two games of the series, Crawford tallied four hits including the second game when he had a three-hit night that saw him wallop a grand slam. Seattle was able to get the bats clicking in the later innings in game one, and game two saw them explode early thanks to JP’s grand salami, but it wouldn’t end up being enough as Justin Topa got burned for two-runs in the eighth inning. Seattle then went on to absolutely waste starting pitcher George Kirby’s eight inning effort, as they didn’t get him any run support whatsoever.
The story of Seattle’s season so far has been the Mariners wasting their starting pitching and that happened twice in this series. Marco Gonzales, although his outing was a little short at five innings pitched a four hit one run game and Kirby went eight strong innings only allowing a run on four hits. Those sorts of efforts have been the reason that Seattle’s teams have been so close to the playoffs in 2021 and finally broke through in 2022. The Mariners were able to put the Phillies on the ropes in this series but failed to land the knockout punch in the last two to drop the series.
Seattle Mariners outfielder Taylor Trammell in the teams September 5th, 2022 game against the Chicago White Sox (Photos by Liv Lyons)
Ugly start to Toronto series, but a hopeful and resilient end
Heading up North to Canada, things were similar to the Phillies in that two of the games against the Blue Jays were very tight losses that were in reach. In this three-game slate, though, the Mariners pitching wasn’t “spectacular” the whole way through, per say, as Luis Castillo was average, and Marco Gonzales struggled when he allowed eight runs in three innings. While calling Castillo average isn’t a bad thing, as he has been incredible for Seattle this season, you can’t place the blame on him for the game one loss as the Mariners bats went silent after the third inning. Gonzales’ effort on the other hand was poor, as he got run out of the game after three innings. It’s unfortunate that this outing went so poorly, as Marco has had some strong performances so far this year.
Two of the big positives from this series were the start of Easton McGee in game two and the big comeback victory in game three to salvage a win from the series. McGee was brought up from AAA Tacoma the day of the start, stepping in to pitch an excellent 6.2 innings to give the Mariners an excellent opportunity at a victory but Seattle was shutout by Toronto’s Kevin Gausman. Game three provided some excellent reasoning to be positive moving forward, with many viewing the win as the turnaround that the Mariners need to get the ship righted. Taylor Trammell, the day he got called up and on his first swing back in the bigs, clobbered a grand slam to get things going for Seattle. Marco’s tough day put the Mariners in a hole that they’d slowly crawl out of, as Cal Raleigh slammed two homers and the team got a big comeback victory that displayed great resiliency.
Embarrassingly tight sweep of Oakland
Following that thrilling come from behind victory, the Mariners seemed to want to attempt how many times they could perform the comeback act when they headed down to Oakland. Possum in the broadcast booth and all, the Athletics gave Seattle all they could handle as their starting pitching fooled the Mariners in games one and two and further emphasized how bad the teams hitting has been as their team batting average went down to worst in MLB. The case of the late arriving Seattle bats seemed to be amplified in this series, with the Mariners not getting any runs until the final third of the game in both of the first two games.
It was AJ Pollock who started things off in those instances, slamming homers to awaken his teammates bats and secure the victories in front of many, many empty seats. Seattle was able to get a quicker start in the third game to complete the sweep with bursts in the third and fourth innings as George Kirby worked a solid outing. The Mariners were able to complete a sweep, but it wasn’t without the games being very close and Seattle very realistically could’ve lost those first two games of the series. It’s a very tight sweep, but a sweep nonetheless.
Road trip warrior: AJ Pollock and Taylor Trammell
While they weren’t the most productive throughout the course of the entire road trip, Pollock and Trammell provided some key offense in the last two series of the trip when Seattle needed it. Jarred Kelenic had another great road trip, putting up the best hitting stats across the board through the nine games, but it somehow feels cheap to go with him considering how key these two were to the last four wins that the Mariners have collected. You could also make the case for two of the starters that Seattle used over the course of trip, Easton McGee and Bryce Miller, as they provided excellent innings for the Mariners when they needed them considering that Flexen has failed to produce quality starts for the team with Robbie Ray done for the year.
Pollock’s critical homers in the late stages of the first two Athletics games were exactly what the Mariners needed to get the offense going in those games and grind out victories against an Oakland franchise that may be on its last limbs. Taylor Trammell’s welcome back to the MLB was incredible, a grand slam on his first swing in the game against the Blue Jays that turned into the win that began Seattle’s four game winning streak. While Seattle has a “logjam” so to say in the outfield, if Trammell produces, it’ll be quickly welcomed into the lineup considering the team’s struggles at the plate.
What’s next?
Immediately after their day game victory in Oakland to complete their sweep of the Athletics, the Mariners returned home to the Emerald City as they begin a somewhat brief homestand tomorrow, Friday May 5th. Seattle will be debuting their City Connect jerseys in the game against the Houston Astros to kick off a three-game slate with the reigning World Series champions. It’s set to be a fun weekend with a big rivalry series against the Astros, with giveaways galore in addition to the on-field debut of the City Connect jersey. Fans on Saturday will receive “electric factory” inspired sunglasses, and mothers on Sunday will receive a “Geno Grigio” wine tumbler. Make sure to come and join us at the ballpark!
What is “M's on the road recap”
We wanted to create a way to get the general idea of what had taken place in the past homestand or road trip for our Mariners, considering how many games are in the MLB regular season and how some may not want to read the whole game recap for each contest. There will be additions to it going forward, but the goal is to give a quick recap of what took place over the course of a homestand or road trip for our Mariners so that fans can get the general gist of what just took place while not getting into the deeper storylines.