Mariners do a little bit of everything in win, shut out Mets 4-0

Excellent pitching from Walter/Logan Gilbert, just enough offense, shutdown bullpen propels Mariners to 4-0 win

One of the most painful storylines for the Mariners this season has been how little run support they’ve given their stellar rotation, but specifically Logan Gilbert, who has labored thanklessly all season with some of the lowest run support in the league, leading to what should be an airtight argument for killing a pitcher’s win-loss record as any kept stat for good. Tonight the Mariners helped out Gilbert by hitting the magical number three (plus one): as in, the three-plus runs of support Gilbert needs to record a win. He’s now hit his uniform number: 36-0 when the Mariners give him three runs of support or more (that stupid Boston game makes it require the corollary “while he’s in the game”).

The Mariners got things started with a little defensive razzle-dazzle: Francisco Lindor took a 98 mph fastball at the bottom of the plate into left field for a line drive single, but Logan Gilbert was able to strike out Brandon Nimmo on a perfectly-placed cutter before getting J.D. Martinez to ground into this highlight-reel double play:

“That play could happen 10 times, and you might grab it two,” said Scott Servais postgame, shaking his head. “That’s experience, that’s no panic, that’s having played a lot of baseball and having done some of that stuff before.”

“That’s one of the best plays I’ve seen all year,” said Logan Gilbert postgame. “To take the momentum like that...then we go in with that momentum, score three in the first, so those guys behind me, I felt like, won the game in the first.”

Spoiler alert: he’s not wrong. Sean Manaea hadn’t given up a run in the past 14 innings entering tonight’s contest, but that changed two batters into the game: Victor Robles and Randy Arozarena bopped back-to-back doubles down the left field line and then Justin Turner followed that up with a double that would have been a home run at all but 13 big-league parks, including the evil kite-eating tree that is T-Mobile Park. Welcome to Seattle JT! Mitch Haniger then scored Turner from second on a base hit, because Mitchus Augustus, giving the Mariners an early 3-0 lead.

Even more excitingly, both Robles and Randy’s doubles came in two-strike counts. Given the trouble this team has had hitting with two strikes, that’s an encouraging sign moving forward.

While the Mariners didn’t score any more runs off Manaea, they were downright pesky on a night where he seemed slightly fatigued, missing the strike zone large and often and issuing a season-high-tying five walks. He was at 80+ pitches after just three innings, forcing the Mets into a bullpen-on-the-fly situation. Huascar Brazobán pitched two 1-2-3 innings followed by another shutdown inning from Reed Garrett, who looks like post-Rumspringa AJ Puk after he’s taken a job in an insurance agency, keeping the game tight at 3-0 while the wave began to rampage through the stands.

Meanwhile, Logan Gilbert fought his way through the tough Mets lineup, holding them at bay over seven strong innings. After giving up that first-inning hit to Lindor, he didn’t allow another hit until Lindor’s third time up—although to be fair, Lindor should have had one in the third inning, but Victor Robles said we can’t be letting the infield have all the defensive highlights:

Gilbert was sterling tonight, in full Walter mode, mixing his pitches and keeping the Mets off-balance. He threw seven more pitches than Manaea, at 92, but went four innings deeper into the ballgame. Per Mariners PR, he now has five starts of 7+ scoreless innings pitched this season, which leads MLB and is also the most by a Mariners pitcher in a season since...2015 Félix. That’s some good company to be in. Postgame, Gilbert said he felt like he goes deep in ballgames to pay off some debt accrued during his first year “when guys like Robbie, Marco, Flex had to cover my innings. So I want to be able to do that for the younger guys, for the bullpen.”

“Cal did a great job working Logan through their lineup,” said Servais postgame, “and did it a little bit differently every time through the lineup tonight.”

Maybe Logan would have only given up two hits if he’d listened to his catcher: postgame Gilbert admitted that he only shook Cal once, resulting in the second hard-hit Lindor single. “A rocket,” Gilbert said sheepishly. “I’m sure I’ll be hearing about that.”

Servais didn’t pin the blame entirely on that pitch call, saying he thought Gilbert was pitching “not to screw up” in the sixth, vs. the way he attacked in the seventh, when he picked up two of his six strikeouts on the day, getting Pete Alonso and Jeff McNeil back-to-back. Pitching Ninja apparently went to bed before the seventh, but here’s a mashup of all Gilbert’s strikeouts tonight if you can stand MLB’s preroll ads:

After Gilbert completed his outing, the Mariners finally got a run of insurance in the seventh off old frenemy Phil Maton; Randy singled and stole second, and was eventually cashed in on a Justin Turner Overdrive single.

That gave Yimi García a four-run cushion, and Jorge Polanco helped him out with yet another defensive gem as he posted another scoreless inning (we shall refrain from speaking of the parachute shot that squirted out of Robles’s glove costing us back-to-back web gems here).

Andrés Muñoz entered in the ninth and worked a seamless 1-2-3 inning, making some history while he was at it by becoming the first reliever in franchise history to go 11 consecutive hitless appearances. With 11.1 hitless innings, he also ties Charlie Furbush in 2012 for the longest span of consecutive hitless innings.

“He’s put together a really good season as he continues to learn and grow in that closer role,” said Servais. “There’s days it’s been easy for him, and days it hasn’t been as easy for him, but he’s tough to hit.”

It might have looked easy for Muñoz and the Mariners tonight, but that doesn’t happen without Gilbert dominating over seven innings to make sure the Mets had no chance at coming back. Gilbert said he felt a special energy in the ballpark tonight:

“Saturday night, fans are going crazy out there. I’m down in the tunnel getting ready for the [second] inning, and it sounds like a playoff game out there...so then it’s just my job to go out there and try to hold it.”

Line held.