They’ve won back-to-back games on numerous occasions this season, though not enough to meet their own overall expectations. It certainly hasn’t felt that way given their back-and-forth inconsistency. They’ve swept the Athletics, who were hapless at the time and hard to beat in the last week, in a four-game series. There was a three-game sweep of the Rockies, who are on their way to being one of the worst teams in the National League.
But with Tuesday night’s decisive, 9-3 victory over the Marlins, whose 37-31 record this season is much better than the beleaguered reputation of the organization, the Mariners not only guaranteed a much-needed series win, but they also produced two of their best-played games of the season on consecutive nights.
“Back-to-back really good games,” manager Scott Servais said. “It certainly feels a little different, certainly with the production that we’ve had offensively from different parts of the lineup, everybody contributing. It feels different in the clubhouse. I think players understand that we needed to make some adjustments and we have. We’re starting to get the results from it. But we’ve got to stay with it, day after day after day. We have to grind through it.”
Dare they go for three in a row Wednesday?
They will send right-hander Luis Castillo to the mound for a series sweep. The Marlins will go with right-hander Eury Perez, who stands 6-foot-8 and throws in the high 90s.
In Monday’s series opener, Seattle rode a strong bounce-back start from Bryce Miller and explosive offensive production from the top of the order, including eight hits, to roll to an easy 8-1 win.
The Mariners followed up that performance in similar fashion on Tuesday, getting a strong bounce-back outing from starter George Kirby and heavy production from the bottom of the order, including three homers and all nine runs driven in, to put the game out of reach early.
Five days ago, Kirby slogged his way through his worst outing of the season, allowing the Padres to rack up 11 hits in 3 2/3 innings.
Given his nasty competitive streak that belies his certified public accountant appearance, it seemed unlikely he’d have a second straight subpar showing.
“I didn’t peek at that game once because I knew would bounce back,” he said. “It’s baseball. It’s a blessing and a curse. I’m going to go back out next week and do my job.”
That intent was evident in the first inning when he struck out Luis Arraez, the most productive hitter in baseball, and fired a pair of 99 mph fastballs while getting Jorge Soler to bounce out and striking out Bryan De La Cruz swinging.
It was only the 14th time Arraez struck out in 262 plate appearances this season.
Kirby’s dominance was a sign of things to come.
He pitched six innings, allowing one unearned run on three hits with no walks and a career-high 10 strikeouts.
He flirted with perfection into the fifth inning, retiring the first 13 batters he faced. But with one out in the fifth, Yuli Gurriel laced a low liner into left field that Jarred Kelenic couldn’t quite commit to making a diving play on. The ball skipped by him for an error.
“I knew what was going on,” he said.
Did he have no-hitter type of stuff?
“I felt really good,” he said. “I was hitting the corners and was keeping them off balance. I knew it was going on. I felt really good. But I was just glad to get the win tonight.”
With his first base runner allowed in scoring position, Kirby struck out Jean Segura and Jon Berti to end the inning.
His only run allowed came in the sixth inning. He allowed a one-out single to Garrett Hampson, who later advanced to second on a passed ball. With two outs, Jorge Soler took advantage of a first-pitch curveball that hung in the zone, singling up the middle to score Hampson to cut the lead to 5-1.
“It’s seems like every time George has a bump in the road, he comes back and is even better and makes a good adjustment, which is what really good pitchers do,” Cal Raleigh said.
What was the adjustment?
Instead of flooding the strike zone with fastballs, Kirby used his secondary pitches earlier in counts.
“We’ve kind of seen people have certain scouting reports in the league,” said Raleigh. “Obviously, it’s not a secret anymore. George pounds the zone. We were kind of getting a little heater heavy. We kind of got back to mixing speeds and locations. He did a great job of mixing the curve and slider in there.”
The Mariners provided him plenty of run support.
Mired in an offensive slump and hitless in his last 21 at-bats, Raleigh, who decided to go from goatee to a mustache, crushed a three-run homer into the right-field seats off Marlins starter Edward Cabrera in the second inning.
Raleigh’s ninth homer of the season was his first since May 28.
“I felt like I took a lot of frustration out on that one,” he said. “Nobody likes it when you are zero-for what seems like the century. But it happens and you’ve just got to keep going and keep making adjustments.”
While Cabrera has nasty stuff, including a change up that somehow registers in the low 90s and a biting curveball, the Mariners made him work to get outs.
In the fourth inning, Mike Ford stayed on a low change up, golfing it over the wall in right-center for a two-run homer and a 5-0 lead. It was his first of two homers on the night.
“Good for Mike Ford,” Servais said. “He started the season on a tear in Triple-A. He’s been with us in the past, but I think he’s got a little bit different attitude about his opportunity here this time, and it’s starting to show. Mike has always produced at the minor-league level. He’s been given a shot here and he just needs to stay with the same approach at the big-league level.”
Having thrown 85 pitches in the first four innings, Cabrera wouldn’t come back out for the fifth.
Seattle tacked on three more runs in the sixth inning. The Mariners loaded the bases with no outs for Jose Caballero, who continued his magical run this season. He pulled a ground ball down the third-base line and into the left-field corner for a bases-clearing triple.
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