M’s Take Two of Three in Texas, Climb Past World Champs in West

After losing eight straight games at Globe Life Field going into this season, the now first-place Seattle Mariners won both the opening and final game of three against last year’s World Series champions. Backed by strong starting and relief pitching, and timely hitting, the M’s head back home after a 4-2 road trip. It’s Seattle’s third consecutive series win, and they have won seven of their last ten ballgames.

Tough injury news, as everyday shortstop J.P. Crawford headed to the Injured List with a grade one right oblique strain Thursday. He was a late scratch prior to Wednesday’s game, despite going through all the pregame warmups. Venezuelan-born Leo Rivas was called up for the first time in his career in a move to replace Crawford. Rivas slashed .308/.422/.462 in 66 plate appearances with Triple-A Tacoma. Also, reliever Gregory Santos was transferred from the 15-Day to the 60-Day IL.

Miss any of the action over the past couple of days? Follow along, as here’s how it went down in the Lone Star State.

Tuesday’s opener featured the thin man, Logan Gilbert against righty Dane Dunning on the bump.

Instant offense for Seattle, as the Big Dumper, dealing with a very painful tooth problem (which he had to get emergency surgery on Wednesday morning) absolutely demolished a middle-middle fastball 108-MPH off the bat for his sixth home run of the season. This one, in the top of the first, was one of the two-run variety, and Seattle was up early. Note on the mouth injury for Big Cal: he said that it was the worst pain in his life… the tough guy even wanted to play Wednesday.

It was an interesting start for Logan, who walked two in the first inning, and another in the second. He came into the game with four total walks allowed, but was able to escape both innings scoreless. As a matter of fact, he escaped the entirety of his start scoreless, but we’ll get to that.

Bottom three, and with a man aboard, Julio Rodriguez dug in. The two-time Silver Slugger finally got off the home run schneid, in what appeared to have been headed towards Dallas, maybe even Fort Worth. 4-0 was the lead for Seattle after J-Rod’s mammoth 435-foot two-run blast.

Back to Gilbert, who was one out shy of a seven-inning shutout performance. He allowed just two base hits and punched out six Rangers. Ryne Stanek got that final out in the seventh.

Lefty Gabe Speier and closer Andres Munoz struck out three combined as Seattle blanked the Rangers by a score of 4-0 on Tuesday night in Arlington.

Seattle’s Bryce Miller, who has been arguably one of the best starters in the MLB to begin the season, got the nod in his home state against hard-throwing Jon Gray.

Again, it was the M’s who struck first… in the first. A leadoff triple by Josh Rojas led to a run on an RBI groundout by Mitch Haniger.

Though Miller was through three scoreless innings Wednesday, there was plenty of hard contact. That hard contact finally translated to runs for the Rangers. In the bottom of the fourth, Adolis Garcia and Evan Carter hit back-to-back solo home runs off of Bryce, giving Texas their first lead of the series. Jonah Heim followed a few innings later with a two-RBI single and then Carter in the seventh, tripled home Garcia as the Rangers put up five total runs on Wednesday.

Miller was hit around pretty good for what seems like the first time this season. He only lasted four innings, walking four on 83 pitches. Tayler Saucedo, Tyson Miller and Austin Voth each gave up one run in relief. Texas took game two by a final of 5-1.

Then it was Thursday, and Seattle was searching for their third-straight series victory. And It was Luis Castillo, despite the 1-4 record on the season, looking to continue dealing for the third straight start. In his previous two, La Piedra had struck out 18, walking just one, and allowing two earned runs. He faced lefty Andrew Heaney, who was in search of win number one in 2024.

Something about Seattle and the first inning runs this series in Globe Life Field. This time, it was new-dad Ty France who muscled his first home run of the season the opposite way with J-Rod on base. 2-0 was the advantage for the M’s in the blink of an eye.

But Nathaniel Lowe, Texas’ 1st Baseman, clapped back a half inning later, as he cranked his first home run of the season off of Luis – a solo shot that just cleared the fence into the right center bullpens.

Castillo did allow some hard contact throughout Thursday but was able to limit the damage. That said, Josh Smith, in for the injured Josh Jung, tied it up in the bottom of the fourth on a solo home run.

A half inning later, M’s now everyday shortstop Dylan Moore reached on a double and Luis Urias cranked a high fastball into the left field seats and gave Seattle the lead back midway through the finale game Thursday. Seattle has seen solid production at the plate from their third base platoon of Josh Rojas and Luis Urias early here in 2024.

Castillo’s day was done after 102 pitches and six complete. Just four hits, where two were the solo home runs, and six strikeouts. Following his performance, Castillo’s ERA sat at 1.89 in his last three starts.

Ryne Stanek was first to answer the phone in the pen. Unfortunately, and despite striking out two, he allowed an RBI single to leadoff man Marcus Semien, which brought the Rangers within one. Gabe Speier clutched up, as he has done all season, and got 2023 World Series MVP Corey Seager to strike out on a check swing to strand two in the bottom of the seventh.

Seattle’s offense was alive for just two of the nine innings, where all their hits came in the innings they had the two, two-run home runs. Insurance would have been nice, but Seattle’s bullpen took no prisoners Thursday. Speier and Munoz got the meat of the Texas order to fold, and the M’s, following a Munoz eight-pitch ninth, escaped with a one-run win. 4-3 was the final Thursday and put the Mariners back in the lead of the American League West by a half-game.

Ex-beloved Mariners Eugenio Suarez, Paul Sewald, Seattle’s-own Corbin Carroll, and the Arizona Diamondbacks had an off-day Thursday and will be well-rested when the series opens up against the host-team Friday night. The D-Backs sit two games under .500 but have showed their worth with a run differential of +35, which is the same as the NL-Central leading Milwaukee Brewers.

Pitching probables for AZ @ SEA:

• Friday April 26th, 6:40 PM PST: RHP Zac Gallen (3-1, 3.00 ERA) vs. RHP Emerson Hancock (2-2, 6.10 ERA)
• Saturday April 27th, 6:40 PM PST: AZ TBD vs. RHP George Kirby (2-2, 5.33 ERA)
• Sunday April 28th, 1:10 PM PST: AZ TBD vs. RHP Logan Gilbert (2-0, 1.87 ERA)

American League West standings as of 4/25:

1. Seattle Mariners (13-12), -- GB
2. Texas Rangers (13-13), 0.5 GB
3. Los Angeles Angels (10-15), 3.0 GB
4. Oakland Athletics (9-16), 4.0 GB
5. Houston Astros (7-19), 6.5 GB