Logan Gilbert tosses a gem while Mariners’ bats stay hot to beat Orioles – The Seattle Times
BALTIMORE — The last two games have been so enticing that they could renew optimism about the Mariners that began to fade in late April and was absent in early June.
But it’s not the disproportionate results that coach Scott Servais and his players want to believe this is a sign of better days and better games.
No, it’s the way they’ve pulled off the lopsided wins in recent games, and the signs of it already showing on the previous home side, that make the Mariners think they’re getting closer to the heightened expectations this season can.
They earned a dominant performance from starter Logan Gilbert, while offensive starter Kyle Gibson made life difficult by scoring five early runs against him and ending his performance after three innings with a 13-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles
It was the second straight game in which the Mariners hit double-digit runs, which seemed impossible given early offensive problems. Seattle notched 17 hits, including six consecutive runs-scoring singles with two outs in the eighth inning.
“It’s about beating their starter,” Servais said. “That’s the key to winning a series. We’ve got off to a good start here. This is a really good team. They played really well. We came in and silenced the crowd. They have energy that you can feel in the stadium. But it was our starting pitch and hitting all night.”
After a brief three-game hiatus, a renewed focus on more competitive at-bats and making opposing starters work from the first pitch is palpable.
On Thursday, they went 10 runs in 3 1/3 innings ahead of Yankees starter Domingo German. On Friday, they endured Gibson’s worst game of the season, struggling to give the Orioles three full innings, allowing for five runs with seven hits, three walks and four strikeouts.
Gibson threw a whopping 86 pitches in his three innings with just 46 strikes. The Mariners battled Gibson through their plate appearances and made him work for his outs.
It was Gibson’s shortest start in Baltimore that season. He hadn’t conceded more than three runs in his last six starts and it was only the second time this season he’d conceded more than four runs in a game.
In the last 12 games, nine opposing starting pitchers have failed to get past five innings against Seattle. The Mariners are 6-3 in these contests. It’s a simple equation that Servais can show his players.
“Definitely, and believe me I am,” he said. “I think the most important thing is to understand the ups and downs of the season. We get a lot of things right, and then you meet a Lance Lynn or a Gerrit Cole and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s not working.’ No, we’re sticking with the program. And I owe it to our guys that they did it.”
Conversely, the Mariners’ starting players have recovered from a tough week on the previous road trip and are back to their normal form.
With Gilbert’s seven pitched innings, one run allowed in two hits with a walk, and five strikeouts, the Mariners’ starting pitchers have conceded three runs or fewer in their last 10 games and two runs or fewer in eight of those 10 games.
“I felt pretty good,” Gilbert said. “I was in sync. My body felt good walking down the hill. I think when I’m at my best my performance is pretty effortless and easy and smooth. And that’s how I felt tonight.”
Gilbert survived a 20-pitch first inning, running the game’s first batter, aided by a timely double play to prevent a run. He didn’t allow a run until the seventh as he seemed to get stronger with every scoreless frame.
Gilbert used all four of his pitches almost evenly, kept the Orioles off balance and had 15 straight batters withdrawn before Anthony Santander hit a solo home run into right field.
“It’s the evolution of starting pitching in this league, no matter how good your fastball is, it’s the secondary pitches that ultimately become the separator,” Servais said. “There are a lot of players in this league with great fastballs, but the top pitchers have the secondary pitchers.”
Gilbert admitted he couldn’t have been that pitcher a year ago. He didn’t have the confidence or precision in that pitch repertoire.
“I could never have done that a few years ago, even if I wanted to,” he said. “It helps a lot when the game actually starts. You can read fluctuations, see what they’re doing, and make changes on the fly if needed. Where, like a few years ago, I pretty much did the same thing every time.”
Gibson had no such efficiency. It took him 35 pitches to get through a second inning in which a sacrifice flight from Tom Murphy gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead and left the bases strained.
The outing fell short in the third inning when he started with a leadoff walk that later scored through the left touchline after Eugenio Suarez’s one-out single. Kolten Wong followed with a sacrifice flight and Murphy smashed a misplaced sinker for a two-run home run deep in left field seats for a 5-0 lead. Statcast measured Murphy’s blast – his third home run of the season – at 418 feet.
Gibson would not come out in the fourth inning as Orioles manager Brandon Hyde went to his bullpen much earlier than expected.
“If you look at our bats in the first two to two and a half months, you can see that we didn’t have a lot of them lined up,” Murphy said. “And now you’re seeing a couple of games where everyone in the lineup kind of just kind of falls into place.”
The Mariners didn’t let up against the Orioles’ bullpen. Teoscar Hernandez greeted Gibson’s backup, Logan Gillaspie, with a solo home run over the center wall.
But Murphy understands why Servais was frustrated in New York and criticized the lack of competitive bats early in the games.
“I think we used to be seen doing it like that in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings where the offense kind of turned around and we magically won a ball game because we all had really good bats,” he said. “We really tried to find the recipe that would allow us to implement it for a full game and hopefully we’ll get there.”
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