SAN DIEGO — Are they doing it again?
As the rhythmic chants of “Let’s Go Mariners! Let’s Go Mariners!” rang out from the vocal contingent of Seattle fans and players’ family seated behind the third base dugout, J.P. Crawford, his uniform covered in dirt and a smile on his face, acknowledged them as he returned to third base.
He had just ripped a laser over the head of center fielder Trent Grisham in the top of the ninth inning for what appeared to be a two-run triple, later verified by replay review, and removed any sort of drama for the ninth inning. Instead of Paul Sewald being asked to protect a two-run lead against the top of the Padres order, the veteran right-hander, who pitched at the University of San Diego, was able to shrug off a leadoff single from Jurickson Profar and work a scoreless inning to close out a 6-2 victory.
With the sweep of the quick little two-game series in San Diego, the Mariners have now won 12 of their last 15 games and moved within a game of .500 at 41-42.
Relying on the bats of Crawford, Sam Haggerty and Dylan Moore, the Mariners provided enough offense to overcome an atypical outing from starter Logan Gilbert.
Haggerty and Moore?
Yes, the duo combined for five hits, scored three runs and drove in four.
Gilbert worked 5 1/3 innings, giving up two runs (one earned) while allowing six hits, walking three and striking out just one.
After a quick 1-2-3 first inning, the only clean inning of his outing, Gilbert found himself in serious trouble in the second inning. He allowed back-to-back singles to the first two batters he faced — Luke Voit and Eric Hosmer. A bloop single from Nomar Mazara into right field loaded the bases with no outs.
But Gilbert didn’t let the situation overwhelm him.
After a quick mound visit to slow down the pace of the inning, Gilbert got a first-pitch fastball in on the hands of Austin Nola that resulted in a ground ball to third base. Eugenio Suarez gobbled up the ball and fired to Cal Raleigh for the force out at home. The Padres continued their aggressive approach with Trent Grisham, who swung at a first pitch fastball below the strike zone, hitting a soft fly ball to left field that wasn’t deep enough for Voit, who is built like a professional wrestler, to score on the play. With two outs, C.J. Abrams worked a full count against Gilbert, but his line drive to left-center was caught easily by Julio Rodriguez for the final out of the inning.
The crisis was averted, but it was also a sign that Gilbert was either going to have to refind his command or battle to get outs for the rest of the game.
His teammates provided a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Sam Haggerty, perhaps the most unlikely of hitters in the lineup, smashed a solo homer deep into the right-field seats off Padres starter Mike Clevinger. It was Haggerty’s first homer of the season and registered a 109-mph exit velocity — the hardest hit ball during any of his MLB plate appearances.
Gilbert, well, Adam Frazier, gave the run back to the Padres in the bottom of the inning. Gilbert issued back-to-back walks to Jake Cronenworth and Voit. But he should’ve been out of the inning when Eric Hosmer hit a routine ground ball to second base. However, Adam Frazier misplayed the ball for an error, allowing Cronenworth to tie the game at 1-1.
The Mariners retook the lead an inning later with their four utility players batting in the bottom four spots in the order. With two outs, Abraham Toro worked a walk and Frazier, who had lined out in his first at-bat, ripped a single into left-center that allowed Toro to go first to third. Dylan Moore drove in both runners, ripping a hard ground ball just over the third base bag and into the left-field corner for a two-run double. Haggerty made it 4-1 on crisp line drive single to right field that scored Moore from second.
Gilbert wouldn’t make it out of the sixth inning. He allowed a bloop leadoff double to Nomar Mazara that Haggerty couldn’t quite grab on a sliding attempt. With his pitch count nearing 100, he got Austin Nola to ground out but walked Trent Grisham to end his outing.
Manager Scott Servais called on Andres Munoz to face his former team in a key leverage situation. He allowed a fly ball in left field foul territory that Haggerty was able to grab, but also allowed Mazara to tag up and score from third. With two outs, Munoz walked Jurickson Profar but came back to strike out Manny Machado swinging on a 102.5 mph fastball.
Munoz came back and worked a scoreless seventh inning.
