Lively Mariners team drops an anvil on Rays in cartoonish victory

There’s nothing I love more than pure, happy chaos. Add comedy, unexpected turns, and just a touch of heart, and I’m in. That’s a big part of why my favorite Disney movie is and probably always will be The Emperor’s New Groove. It’s also a big part of why the Seattle Mariners have remained my favorite team since childhood, despite being the weirdest team to ever exist in any sport, rather not despite, but to because of that. If today’s game was a movie, for me it would be The Emperor’s New Groove, as the Mariners took the goofiest route possible to an 8-4 win over the Rays. The score might lead you to believe that Chaos Ball played no part in today’s match, but you would be wrong.

If today’s game was The Emperor’s New Groove, then the star of this show was absolutely Logan Gilbert. There were definitely times when his command missed the mark, and that can be reflected in his three steps he gave up on his IP 5.2. What matters more than where he missed is where he was, and tonight he Absolutely was on. The rest of his line really shined as he threw 62 of 104 pitches for strikes, allowed no runs on just two hits and whipped up a total of seven Rays batters. Of those seven, four of them looked absolutely idiotic breathing on grounds outside the area. Admittedly, one of them was on a bad call that missed inches from the plate, but he was also helped by excellent framing from Tom Murphy. Also, given how those calls have hit Mariners hitters all season, I’m going to attribute this one to karmic justice. You can feast on all the beautiful (and all the ugly) K’s here:

Gilbert ended up throwing 59 of his fastball pitches, and he also did a good job of mixing up his off-speed pitches, generating a respectable if not spectacular 21% Whiff rate across his entire repertoire. With all three walks and a wild pitch in the fourth, I wouldn’t say he was exactly elite, but he impressively had a no-hitter until a Manuel Margot single in the bottom of the 5th. The only other hit from him in the sixth was another single, this time from Brandon Lowe, who was clearly getting revenge for his two strikeouts earlier in the game. Gilbert is now rocking an absolutely elite, league-leading 0.40 ERA. Even with the expected regression, it’s hard to argue that he’s not adjusting well to a big-league rotation.

If this all sounds rather tame, don’t worry, I promised you the mayhem and mayhem you’ll get. There were plenty of moments throughout the game that sounded weird, like when Logan Gilbert let a pitch fly away from him and almost hit former Mariner Ji-Man Choi in the shins, only for Choi to commit. a foul that ricocheted. of them anyway. Another came top of the 7th when Tom Murphy appeared to swing-hit, only to reach base on a rare receiver’s interference call. It wasn’t even Tom Murphy’s weirdest play in the game, rather it was a brace in the top of the 5th inning that would have been a home run if Tropicana Field hadn’t had a hat on a hat. extremely strange. situation with a fence placed on top of a wall, separated by a space-which-is-not-a-space. It’s a piece you have to see for yourself.

I honestly don’t watch enough Rays games to know if this is a common occurrence, but it seems that given the nature of the circuitry and launch angles, it’s possible enough to make it an inherently bad design that only asks for chaos.

Where the chaos really lived was at the top of the 4th, where the Marines scored 7 of their 8 runs, none of them scored an earned run. It was absolutely Looney Tunes, or rather The Emperor’s New Groove. A comedic moment was a controversial bobble ball from Lowe which clearly appeared to be a mistake, only to my eyes appearing to have been secured for the replay release, then only for the Rays to lose the challenge and Suárez to be called safe to 2nd loading of the bases with a single exit. This set up a Tom Murphy helicopter to Choi perfectly, which he inexplicably planted in the ground on the short distance home, allowing Winker and Suárez to come back and score. “Pull the lever, Kronk. Bad leverage!Julio Rodríguez immediately followed up with the hardest-hit ball of the night, an impressive 108.6 EV line to the center-right gap for a brace that scored Abraham Toro. From there, Dylan Moore hit a BPH that frankly probably wasn’t, as he seemed to completely miss his foot. Chaos, am I right? The bases were loaded again with one out, but it lasted exactly one pitch as Adam Frazier hopped on a Josh Fleming lead to left dead center, finding the grass in right field and clearing the bases with a triple. Finally, France also attacked the first pitch and singled to left field to bring Frazier home.

It all started with a simple Jesse Winker to right field, burned straight away with an EV of 104.3. He also hit a lineout at Kiermaier at 1st and another lineout at Margot at 8th that had EVs of 106.1 and 99.4, respectively. Although Winker only had a 1-of-5 night with one strikeout, he continues to hit the ball hard, and eventually some of them have to go down for hits. To the right? To the right???

The last point scored by the Mariners came off a Ty France sack fly in the top of the 6th to score Frazier, and with an 8-0 lead it looked like the rest of the game could go rather safely. Enter, once again, into chaos. An eight-point lead was too comfortable for the old baseball gods, so they consider the Mariners must allow the Rays to get some on the board as well, much to the chagrin of M fans with heartburn issues. everywhere. Those runs came in the bottom of the 7th from the Rays’ youth move and a Mariners reliever named Matt Koch. First off a two-run homer from Rene Pinto, making his Major League debut at catcher after Zunino was called out with injury, his first Major League hit. Frankly, good for him. The next and final damage came from another two-time outburst, this time from Wander Franco. Luckily the bleeding stopped there and Koch managed to get Yandy Díaz to gently drop to the ground to end the round without needing to be pulled.

Andres Munoz came to work the 9th inning, and although he gave up a single and a walk, he was never really in danger as he got all three out with strikeouts. One of those Ks was a slider against Wander Franco who had so much movement when he got into the receiver’s glove that he was completely behind him. In fact, his three strikeouts came with the slider, the last a slider inside the box which confused Choi.

Whether it’s my favorite movies or my favorite baseball team, I love it when expectations are knocked down. I love chaos, but I also love a happy ending. Today’s game took some crazy twists and turns, but when the Mariners learned there would be sharp rocks at the bottom, they said “go for it.”