The peeps do not drink enough pimp juice
The ‘90s were rad, and rightly celebrated by the Mariners at last night’s 90s Night win. But, dawg, as dusk turned to dawn, it seemed the team decided to commemorate a way sketchier decade, turning ahead the clock ten years to ‘00s Afternoon.
The game started out pretty poppin’, with Logan Gilbert showing the good velo and striking out two in the first inning, torturing the Diamondbacks with his fastball and cutter like he was Jack Bauer. And Josh Rojas followed it up with his second leadoff homer of the series. So fetch.
Josh Rojas, again … His second of the series, both to lead off the 1st inning — and against his former team.
102.8 mph off the bat, 349 feet. pic.twitter.com/MqC2PHbEIq
— Daniel Kramer (@DKramer_) April 28, 2024
But in the next half, Gilbert missed a pitch on the RAZR’s edge, and Christian Walker deposited it into the seats, tying the game at 1-1. Other than those homers, both starting pitchers were cruising through the lineups for most of the game. The Mariners’ best inning was the third, when Leo Rivas paid tribute to that iconic 2000s figure, Yuniesky Betancourt, by becoming the first Mariner since 2005 to score a triple for his first MLB hit. (We love a debut around here. I will never not link.)
Save that ball — Leo Rivas with a standup triple in his first career plate appearance. What a moment for the nine-year Minor League journeyman. pic.twitter.com/ZVPwCgNqr0
— Daniel Kramer (@DKramer_) April 28, 2024
Julio was able to drive him in with a little bloop that he dropped like it was hot into shallow center to make the score 2-1. You would have thought that the Mariners could have really let the dogs out when they loaded the bases with nobody out as part of that sequence. But Ty France flew out to shallow left and Mitch Garver grounded into a double play. Garver, it must be noted, also struck out twice, and we are really looking for some Hope and Change from him after a dreadful April.
Gilbert picked them up though, by continuing to roll through the D-Backs lineup, ultimately striking out nine, while walking just one and allowing four hits over 6.1 innings. Two of those hits were from Christian Walker, who was as annoying and ever-present as Shrek today, the aforementioned home run and a stinging double that came after he pretended to get hit by a pitch that was actually off the knob of his bat.
The other two hits came in the seventh. That’s remarkable in part because Gilbert was pitching in the seventh at all, something he’s done in five of his six outings this year. After the game, Scott Servais credited Gilbert’s ability to get deep into games to the work he’s put in to develop a more complete arsenal. “Logan’s got a lot of different weapons, so he can get you out multiple ways,” he said. “I think most starters have maybe Plan A, Plan B; Logan can go all kinds of places with you.” And indeed, his nine strikeouts today came on three different pitches, with him doing different things with it each time:
Those nine strikeouts were enough for him to take over the league lead . . . from Luis Castillo. But, yes, right, the two hits in the seventh. It’s hard to begrudge the back to back doubles when one of them, which tied the game at 2, came from Eugenio Suárez. After all he’s done for us, we’re going to let Geno have that one. Upon Gilbert’s exit, the mini-fire was put out by, who else, Gabe Speier (become a Gabe Babe already!), meaning Gilbert only gave up two runs today. That continues a streak dating back 16 games since a Mariners starter has allowed more than two earned runs. So Logan gets today’s Sun Hat Award, although I guess since it’s ‘00s Afternoon, we’ll call it the Bucket Hat Award today.
But In the eighth, the Mariners’ win probability crashed like Oceanic Flight 815 when Trent Thornton gave up the game’s winning, and final, run on a double from erstwhile Mariner Ketel Marte.
Somehow, that ERA of 3.00 from the Mariners pitching staff today doubles what they’d been doing over the past few weeks. You’ve heard about the run they’re on, but a picture is worth a thousand words here. Including today’s loss, this is the graph for earned-runs allowed since April 10 through the time of publishing:
Unfortunately, the Mariners hitters struck out 15 times with just five hits, and that wasn’t enough to overcome the three runs allowed by the pitchers. So Sue Hawk got her iconic wish and it ended the way Mother Nature intended as the Snakes ate the bats.