For all the loud contact made by the Mariners recently, sometimes the quieter stuff works just as well.
An infield single. A bunt base hit. A jam shot of 67 mph that finds a hole and makes its way to the outfield.
To be fair, the Mariners had moments of creating some loud noise at the plate on Wednesday afternoon. But it was that series of three straight hits that sparked a six-run rally in the seventh inning and led the M’s to a 9-3 win over the Angels.
The Mariners swept the two-game set and won their seventh straight series, improving to 14-4 over the past 18 games. At 18-12, the M’s are tied for the fourth-best 30-game start in franchise history. They also started 18-12 in 1997, 2016, 2018 and 2019.
Randy Arozarena homered and Julio Rodríguez dented the center field wall for a double. That was the loudest cracks off Mariners bats. The little things that broke the 3-3 tie were just as important.
The seventh inning rally off Angels reliever Reid Detmers started with Leo Rivas beating out an infield single. Samad Taylor used his exceptional speed and bat control to reach on a bunt single and both runners advanced 90 feet when Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe couldn’t handle a pitch. The passed ball meant Crawford could swing away rather than dropping a sacrifice bunt.
Crawford didn’t get much of Detmers’ slider on his hands, but with the infield playing in, the punch shot through the left side was good enough to score Rivas and Taylor.
Rodríguez followed with his shot off the wall to score Crawford, Cal Raleigh chopped an RBI single to keep the line moving and Rivas eventually capped the inning with a two-run single off the glove of Angels first baseman Nolan Schanuel.
Rivas, who didn’t have an RBI yet this season, drove in three runs including his single in the second inning that gave the M’s a 2-1 lead. Raleigh used his speed — yes, his speed — to manufacture a run in the third inning forcing an errant throw on his infield grounder, advancing to second on a wild pitch, stealing third and scoring with the throw to third hit Raleigh in the helmet and bounced far enough away to easily score.
Arozarena’s homer came on the first pitch of the second inning from Angels starter Tyler Anderson and traveled an estimated 400 feet for his first long ball since April 17 in Cincinnati.
While the bats eventually sparked a rally, M’s starter Emerson Hancock was strong for a third straight start since being recalled from the minors.
Hancock allowed three runs and nine hits, but most of the contact he allowed was on the softer side. Jorge Soler rocketed a solo homer at 104.4 mph just fair down the left field line. O’Hoppe bounced a hard single at 100 mph and in his final inning of work Zach Neto had a base hit at 98 mph.
But most of the contact Hancock allowed was soft, or snapped the bat. He was unlucky in the first inning as the Angels took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on base hits of 77, 81 and 85 mph. Not exactly rockets off the barrel.
Despite a stat line that won’t look all that great, Hancock did his part to get through six innings for the second straight outing and followed up on his performance last week in Boston. Hancock struck out four, walked a pair and relied a little more on his slider than his changeup as the primary secondary pitch to his fastball.
Last time out against the Red Sox, Hancock was heavily fastball oriented with the changeup the main off-speed pitch. But against the Angels, Hancock threw the slider 20% of the time and the changeup 18%.
The Angels threatened in the seventh after a walk, single and slow infield ground out put runners at second and third with one out against off reliever Casey Legumina. O’Hoppe popped out in foul territory in front of the M’s dugout for the second out and Luis Rengifo grounded out to end the threat.