SEATTLE — The pitching ranged from filthy to unhittable at times, including a parade of relievers making life miserable for hitters. Runs were scarce, needing to be manufactured 90 feet at time and scored on sacrifice flies. The tension in a packed T-Mobile Park grew as each inning passed with the outcome in doubt. The excitement and emotions were on display from players and fans alike — elation, frustration and ultimately celebration.
And the player who said they were going to end the postseason drought made sure they didn’t fall another game behind in the wild-card race.
Mitch Haniger’s hard single to right-center in the bottom of the 11th scored automatic runner Dylan Moore from second base to give the Mariners a 3-2 walk-off victory.
Everything about the evening and the 11 innings of baseball felt like a place most of them have never been in their careers and will do anything to get there this season.
For Haniger, he’s been with the Mariners since 2017 and was a main reason why the Mariners won 90 games last season and played till the final day of the regular season with a hope of the postseason.
This season, a nasty high ankle sprain kept him out of the lineup for three months, but his return as a healthy and producing hitter in their order will be critical in the games that follow.
The two starting pitchers — Seattle’s Logan Gilbert and Cleveland’s Shane Bieber — performed to a playoff level. Using his typical mix of nasty sliders and biting curveball with a located fastball to keep hitters honest, he didn’t get a tun of help from his defense, which committed two errors.
Bieber pitched seven innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits with no walks and nine strikeouts.
Gilbert pitched 6 1/3 innings, giving up two runs on eight hits with no walks and eight strikeouts. And while he’s had better pitching lines this season, it was a strong outing considering the peskiness of the Guardians hitters.
Austin Hedges doubled off Gilbert to start the third inning. He advanced to third on a flyball to right field and scored on a deep fly ball to center off the bat of Steven Kwan.
The Mariners tied the game in the fifth inning when Carlos Santana singled up the middle, advanced to second on Adam Frazier’s sac bunt that was misplayed for no out and then tagged up and took third when Steven Kwan made an unbelievable catch on Cal Raleigh’s pop foul down the left field line.
Kwan, a talented rookie, made a leaping dive into the stands to make improbable grab. Santana and Frazier alertly moved up a base on the play as Kwan, who was in obvious pain, threw the ball in to the infield. It allowed J.P. Crawford to tie the game with a hard-line drive to center deep enough for Santana to tag up and score.
Following his highlight reel catch, Kwan led off the top of the sixth with a single to left and Amed Rosario followed with a single to left off Gilbert. Jose Ramirez’s deep lineout to right field allowed Kwan to move to third setting up Josh Naylor’s sacrifice fly to right field to make it 2-1.
Gilbert pitched into the seventh but couldn’t finish it. He allowed a one-out double to Tyler Freeman and a single to Hedges. With runners on the corners, manager Scott Servais went to his bullpen. Rookie right-hander Matt Brash retired the next two hitters on short pop-outs to end the inning without a run scoring.
The Mariners tied the game in the bottom of the seventh. Eugenio Suarez worked leadoff walk and Santana singled into the right field corner to put runners on the corners, setting up Frazier’s sacrifice fly to center to make it 2-2.
