Shut out at first, Jarred Kelenic removed his helmet, then his batting gloves, and sat with his back on the infield dirt, leaning back on his hands, his right leg stretched out over second base.
He must have sat there for two minutes after Mariners manager Scott Servais appealed the verdict over the stolen base attempt.
Finally, referee Mark Carlson’s announcement: call cleared, runner safe.
Kelenic, still seated, leaned his head back, looked up at the sky, and smiled. The ballpark DJ quickly queued up John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” Kelenic’s new walk-up song and suddenly a sing-along favorite for everyone at T-Mobile Park.
On the next pitch, Mike Ford hit a groundball midway and Kelenic sprinted home and easily scored in the Mariners’ fifth-inning breakout en route to a rousing 8-4 win over the Washington Nationals on Monday night.
“Take Me Home, Country Roads” boomed through the stadium after Paul Sewald secured the save. The song is doing well, just as Kelenic was hoping when he made it his new walk-up song a few weeks ago.
“People love it, you know?” Kelenic said afterwards. “When the audience engages with it, I just feel like we benefit as a team. And I find it sick.”
The Mariners’ new “selfless” approach is also beginning to catch on.
JP Crawford and Eugenio Suarez hit solo home runs, and the Mariners (38-39) then switched to a small ball style to close an early two-run deficit.
“We talked a little bit about where we are in the season and what we need to do to put together a good series,” said Servais. “And it’s no coincidence when you’re so selfless and giving up for the team and suddenly instead of just one run we had three runs [fifth] inning because we are doing the right things and implementing them there.”
Kelenic scored a single in the fourth inning and advanced to second when Nationals starter Trevor Williams was handed a suspension under a three-disengagement rule. This was the first time the Mariners benefited from this new rule this season.
Then Julio Rodriguez scored a third single and took Kelenic from second place to equalize 3-3.
In the fifth round, Teoscar Hernandez punched the foot of Nationals reserve Cory Abbott and advanced to second base due to an unusual throwing error by first baseman Dominic Smith.
Hernandez advanced to third base after a Cal Raleigh groundout and then got the go with Suarez’s deep, sacrificial flight to the right corner of field.
Raleigh didn’t score on Monday, but Servais called his fifth-round shot perhaps the most crucial of the game. Raleigh, down 2-1 on the count, was able to shove a groundball down the middle, moving Hernandez to third position with an out.
Again, this is part of the selfless approach that Servais has often preached in recent weeks.
“Obviously a really good offensive evening,” said Servais. “We’ve done a lot of really good things.”
With two outs, Kelenic hit a four-pitch walk and then stole second place — an out-call nullified after review — when he deftly dodged shortstop CJ Abrams’ tag attempt.
Ford followed with the RBI single and Kolten Wong added a double from the top right center wall to put Ford 6-3 from the start.
Ty France scored a one-on-one in Crawford in the eighth set and Hernandez followed up with a sac fly to hit Rodriguez for an 8-3 equalizer.
The Mariners, coming home on Sunday night after a 4-2 win away on the East Coast by New York and Baltimore, are looking to capitalize on a young and developing Nationals roster (30-47) who has the fewest wins in the National league has .
The Mariners finished the game with 12 hits and were able to chase Williams away after just four innings.
“We’re approaching halftime [point of] the season, but I don’t think there’s a better time to start [than] right now,” Kelenic said. “The path we’re on right now, we’ve got great hitting techniques and our swing decisions are great. That’s all you can ask for. And now we just need a bit of luck to really get going. And I think we’re getting there.”
Things weren’t going so well for Mariners ace Luis Castillo, who conceded a leadoff home run to Lane Thomas just three pitches later.
Castillo wasn’t particularly sharp early on, allowing a run in each of the first three innings.
After that, he settled down and threw seven solid innings, allowing two earned runs and dishing out seven hits and a walk and seven strikeouts. He had lost his last four starts.
“I’ve had this streak…it hasn’t been the best for me the last few games,” Castillo said through interpreter Fredd Llanos. “But it was important to me to finish seventh [inning]and thank god we were able to do that.”
Crawford responded with a leadoff homer for the Mariners at the end of the first half, his second leadoff homer this season and sixth overall.
It was the first time since 2013 that the Mariners played in a game in which both teams hit a leadoff home run (Brad Miller for the Mariners and Ben Zobrist for the Rays in Tampa Bay) — and the first time that in a played game happened in Seattle.
Suarez hit a home run on Williams to take a fourth-inning lead and reduce the Mariners’ lead to 3-2.
It was Suarez’s eighth home run of the season and he leads the team with 46 RBI.
The Nationals scored a run ahead of Tayler Saucedo in the ninth run. After bases loaded and there were two outs, Servais challenged Sewald to take on Nationals No. 3 batsman Jeimer Candelario.
Sewald knocked him out when he saw a 1-2 slider from the plate to the final out. It was Sewald’s 14th parade.