OAKLAND, Calif. – For the Mariners, their final day off of the regular season will be a welcome break to rest, recover and prepare for the final push for the postseason – an emotionally charged sprint of 10 games in 10 days against the two teams , with whom they compete directly for the American League West.
Friday can’t come soon enough for Mariners fans.
With a comfortable 6-3 victory over the A’s on Wednesday afternoon that wasn’t as close as the score would suggest, the Mariners did what they were supposed to do on this first leg of their final road trip: defeat one of the worst teams in baseball and establish themselves back in the running for a postseason berth and now an AL West title.
With another good start from George Kirby and home runs from Dominic Canzone, Julio Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh, the Mariners secured another win over the A’s this season. They finished the season series 12-1 against Oakland and improved to 84-68.
Seattle is off Thursday in the Dallas-Fort Worth area before opening a crucial three-game series against the Rangers on Friday night at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
The Mariners’ final 10 games begin with the three road games at Texas, followed by the final home game of the season, which includes three games against the Astros, followed by a four-game series against the Rangers.
It won’t be boring.
“The playoffs start Friday night for us,” said manager Scott Servais. “That’s why you play all year round. Our year started a bit bumpy. We’ve righted the ship, got some things going and now we’re in a situation where we can play the teams we’re up against in the standings over a 10-day period. It should be super exciting.”
With several key players returning from the injured list, the Rangers (84-68) assembled their projected postseason lineup and narrowly crushed the Red Sox, rallying from an early four-run deficit to win 15-5.
The top three wild card teams advance to the playoffs / *Texas is in a tiebreaker against Seattle
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The Astros (85-68) couldn’t be defeated at home by the Orioles and needed a walkoff single by Mauricio Dubon in the bottom of the ninth for a 2-1 win.
Houston, which has a half-game lead over Seattle and Texas, will also pause on Thursday, meaning there will be no movement in the AL West standings.
“I’m definitely very excited,” Rodriguez said. “Honestly, I feel like everyone is ready to get on the field. Everyone is excited; Everyone is ready to compete and put everything on the line there.”
Kirby pitched seven innings, allowing three runs on eight hits with no walks and three strikeouts to improve to 11-10 on the season. He wasn’t dominant, but he was efficient and threw the lead so the runners made their way forward.
“I thought George was as smart as we’ve seen him in a long time,” Servais said. “He was super aggressive and attacked the strike zone.”
Kirby’s runs allowed came on two home runs. In the fourth inning, with Kirby taking a 2-0 lead, he gave up a solo home run to Zach Gelof on a 1-0 splitter that got stuck in the zone.
With two outs in the bottom of the sixth and the Mariners leading 6-1, veteran left-hander Seth Brown jumped on a first-pitch fastball and singled. Kirby looked like he was going to hit Oakland All-Star first baseman Brent Rooker to end the inning. He hit a swing strike on an elevated 97 mph fastball over the zone and a foul ball on a curveball. Kirby went back up to the fastball, but it stayed about an inch lower than the previous fastball. Rooker smashed the ball over the wall in center for his 27th home run of the season.
“I don’t want to go back and look at those pitches and think, ‘Oh, I should have thrown that or I should have thrown it somewhere else,'” Kirby said. “Everyone up here is a good hitter and they can hit splitters or high heaters. You just have to keep going and keep attacking.”
Against right-handed starter Joe Estes, making his MLB debut, the Mariners got an unexpected spark from Canzone, who admittedly has struggled and played sparingly of late.
After Ty France made an error, Canzone launched a two-run home run to right field, showing the power potential the Mariners have been raving about since he took over. The explosion had an exit velocity of 112 miles per hour and traveled 448 feet.
Seattle scored four more runs against Estes in the fourth.
In his second plate appearance of the game, Rodriguez took a 93 mph fastball from Estes off the outside of his left hand, leaving him angry and in pain. The casual atmosphere in the Mariners dugout turned very serious when he was checked out by an athletic trainer.
“It’s not a good feeling,” Servais said. “Surely, Julio, he’s making this whole thing work. He is such a dynamic player with what he does. Little things like that can really impact your team’s chances at this time.”
The ball actually hit Rodriguez on the little finger of his left hand. It had padding over it.
“I was trying to get away from it and I was thinking [it] was protected,” he said. “You always want to make sure you’re okay. Nobody wants to get hit and it’s not like I felt the worst, but I was like, ‘Hmm, we’ll have to look after the game.'”
Rodriguez stayed in the game and hit his 31st home run of the season, sending a solo shot over the wall to right-center to start the fourth inning.
Did the finger on Homer hurt?
“I couldn’t feel it yet,” he said. “But it was good that it didn’t get in the way of that home run.”
As a precautionary measure, he was still x-rayed after the game.
“I think we’re in a good spot,” he said.
The solo home run gave him 100 RBI this season. He joins Alex Rodriguez (1998) and Ronald Acuña (2019) as the third MLB player age 22 or younger to post a 30-homer, 30-steal and 100-RBI season.
“It’s a team effort,” he said of the RBI milestone. “I know I didn’t hit 100 solo home runs. There were definitely guys on base that had a lot of good at-bats. I was just trying to help the team win. That’s why it feels really good when the guys are on base and can get them going with a good hit and the right action.”
Rodriguez was still celebrating with the home run trident when Raleigh fired a powerful shot into right field for his 29th home run of the season. Later in the inning, Canzone added a two-run double to deep left-center.
Ryan Divish: 206-464-2373 or [email protected]; on twitter: @RyanDivish. Ryan Divish covers the Mariners in Seattle and on the road. Look out for his Extra Innings podcast and weekly Sunday mailbag during the season.