BOSTON – After running over to protectively cover first base as the final out of the sixth inning was recorded, Bryan Woo turned and started toward the dugout. Slowly. Methodically.
If this was at home, a standing ovation would probably be in order. Because it was at Fenway Park, the deserved applause for Woo came from the visiting dugout and the handful of Mariners fans dotting the stands.
Woo continued his run of quality starts, throwing six innings and for the most part shutting down the Red Sox lineup in a 4-3 Mariners victory Thursday afternoon.
“I think what stands out about Bryan’s last couple starts especially is just that mindset when he’s in the game. He’s extremely focused and locked in, and that’s what we saw today,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said. “When he’s in that state, it’s a really tough at-bat.”
The M’s won their first series in Boston since 2014, when they swept three games from the Red Sox in late August of that season. The Mariners picked up a fifth consecutive series victory and closed out a 6-3 road trip in which they won in a variety of ways.
There were games when pitching was the story and games when the offense more than did its part. And a couple of wild afternoons at the ballpark where comebacks and chaos were the story.
Perhaps most impressive, the M’s dropped the first game of all three stops and still came back to win the series. It’s the first time since June 2009 and only second time in franchise history the M’s won three consecutive series despite dropping the opener in all three.
When the M’s accomplished that feat in 2009, two of the three series were at home.
“It shows some resiliency and not getting too down or too up, honestly, after wins or losses,” Woo said. “Just trying to stay consistent and keep playing good baseball. Down early in a lot of those games, up early in a lot of those games too, just continuing to keep going, keep playing good baseball.”
And they concluded their first long road test of the season watching Woo be the best starter on the field, even when facing Boston ace Garrett Crochet.
The only trouble Woo (3-1) faced came off the bat of Alex Bregman, who provided a reminder of how troublesome he was in the past with Houston. Bregman homered in the first inning, clanged an RBI single off the Green Monster in the third and walked in the sixth.
But only two other Boston batters reached base against Woo – Triston Casas was hit by a pitch, and Jarren Duran doubled. Woo struck out eight and showed an evolution to his pitch mix. Alhough it was still the fastball creating the foundation, Woo spun a season-high 13 sweepers Thursday after throwing 17 sweepers through his first four starts.
It was a trend-breaker and a bit of a different look than maybe what the Red Sox were expecting.
“It had a certain shape to it today that was kind of the shape we’re looking for, something that we could use later in counts,” catcher Mitch Garver said of Woo’s sweeper. “Because as good as his fastballs are, you can’t just continue to go to it over and over again in two-strike counts, so we were able to mix and match when we wanted to use it how we wanted to use it.”
Boston made it a nervous finish for the M’s after Carlos Narváez hit an opposite-field homer off Gabe Speier that clanged off the Pesky Pole just 302 feet down the right-field line leading off the eighth inning.
Speier got the next two batters, and Trent Thornton was the first pitcher to record an out on Bregman.
But that came thanks to to Leo Rivas, who made a difficult basket catch in shallow center field that even seemed to surprise Julio Rodríguez.
“It wasn’t easy. Don’t ask me, because I don’t know, either. It was hard,” Rivas said.
Andrés Muñoz walked Casas with two outs in the ninth but struck out Kristian Campbell, as his bat flew into the infield, to end it.
Though a 6-3 road trip is an overwhelming success, there was a bit of good fortune. The M’s didn’t face Hunter Greene in Cincinnati. They didn’t face Chris Bassitt in Toronto. And they ended up facing a version of Crochet that struggled to stay in the strike zone and couldn’t entice the Mariners to chase.
Crochet needed 110 pitches to finish five innings, tied for the most by any pitcher in baseball this season with San Diego’s Michael King. Unlike Crochet, King’s 110-pitch game came in his two-hit shutout of Colorado.
Crochet walked a career-high five, and despite striking out nine times the Mariners’ plate discipline was exceptional. The Mariners entered the day third in the major leagues in walk percentage at 11.8%, trailing only Philadelphia and Arizona.
“Our guys were making him work. That’s what they do. They’re patient, but when they get their pitch they’re aggressive,” Wilson said.
And the most important at-bat came four batters into the game.
Randy Arozarena fell behind in the count 1-2 before fouling off three consecutive pitches, getting a piece of a changeup, sweeper and cutter. At that point it was a successful plate appearance just for making Crochet work a little extra.
What made the at-bat great was Arozarena laying off three consecutive balls – none particularly close – to extend his on-base streak to a career-high 21 games and keep the inning alive. The effort of Arozarena’s at-bat cashed in when Garver delivered his first extra-base hit of the season, ringing the Green Monster with a double to score Dylan Moore and Arozarena and provide Woo an early 2-0 advantage.
“He saw every pitch that he had, and he was able to fight off some really tough ones and get me up, and I was able to come through there, take a lead right away, so that was nice,” Garver said.
The M’s made it 4-1 in the second when the bottom of the lineup – Ben Williamson, Rivas and J.P. Crawford – used two singles around a walk to load the bases. Moore’s sacrifice fly and Rodríguez’s groundout scored a pair, and the M’s pitching was able to make that early advantage stand for the final seven innings.
“Losing the first game, showing a lot of fight, coming back in each series, this was a really nice way to cap it,” Wilson said.