When I think of Miami, I always think of the Golden Girls because while the show takes place almost entirely inside the main characters’ home, it manages to still convey an unmistakable sense of place. So perhaps it’s unsurprising that when watching this afternoon’s tilt between the Seattle Mariners and the Miami Marlins, I couldn’t stop hearing the Golden Girls’ theme song on a loop in my head, Cynthia Fee’s banger cover of Andrew Gold’s “Thank You for Being a Friend.” But maybe that’s also because it was the ethos that the Mariners brought to the game.
The game began with Logan Evans stepping onto an MLB mound for the first time in his life. (I will never not link to Lou’s beautiful reflection on debuts.) You imagine all the nerves, all the people he must have been thinking about, the friends who’ve helped him get there, including his role models in the clubhouse he now gets to share with them. In Evans’s case, that’s Logan Gilbert, as documented by Kate earlier today. For some, the nerves get the better of them. But Evans got the gift of having the first pitch he threw hit right back to him for a 1-3 ground out, and just like that he was a big leaguer. After getting the next batter with a 3-1 ground out, unfortunately, the third, Agustin Ramirez, punished a middle-middle fastball for a home run. Evans collected himself to get his next batter and limit the damage to just the one run.
But a catcher is a pitcher’s best friend, and Cal Raleigh is quite the friend to have, for in the bottom of the first, Raleigh deposited a ball into the right field seats, tying the game at 1-1 and letting Evans know he wouldn’t have to shoulder the load all by himself.
By the bottom of the second, everyone was competing to see who could give the biggest gift to Evans. J.P. dunked one into shallow left, and Master Bunny and Leo Rivas worked walks to load the bases for Julio. Julio came through with a two-run single, which Polanco followed up with a run-scoring double. Very quickly, the Mariners had a three-run lead, easing the pressure on Logan Evans and letting him just be himself.
Of course, that’s not always what you want. There’s a great scene from Barry, where the main character’s acting coach, aware that Barry is off-putting, advises him to be himself but also cautions: “You don’t want to be the real you in the wrong way.” And that’s probably the advice that Logan Evans needed. He looked very composed, which we like. And he mixed his pitches, which we also like. He managed to showcase each of his six pitches in a short first inning, helping establish that his reputation for being willing to throw any pitch in any situation would carry over from the minors to the show. The problem is he’s also got a reputation for none of those six pitches being a putaway pitch. The Lookout Landing prospects crew has consistently raised the concern that he has trouble finishing guys off. (This is exactly why they opposed the Mariners’ ill-fated attempt to turn Evans into a reliever.) And that problem reared its head today, as Evans was routinely getting into battles with guys who aren’t that much better than a AAA lineup. Four whiffs on 78 pitches makes for a tough row to hoe. You can see here the nice mix of all six pitches, but more than a quarter of them fouled off.
In particular, Evans ran into trouble in the fifth: A single, a walk, a wild pitch, and the best bats due up. Evans was in danger of leaving the game on the Marlins’ terms rather than his. But Cal and J.P. came out for a mound visit, their second of the day, to keep him focused. A pitcher making his way through the amateur circuit and then the minors has to rely on himself, with a rotating cast of characters behind the dish. Aside from a few Spring Training innings, Logan Evans hasn’t had the luxury of Cal Raleigh as his batterymate before. It takes time to trust, but Cal’s heart is true; he’s a pal and a confidant. After the game, Evans said, “I think in the past we’ve worked, but nothing was like today, when I felt like we were finally on the same page with a lot of stuff.” The mound visit promptly got Evans back on track, and he finished off Xavier Edwards on the next pitch, and then struck out Jesus Sanchez with a fantastic sequence of three changeups and a cutter. It would end his afternoon with a final line of 5 IP, 2 R, 2 H, 3 BB, 3 K–a debut anyone could be proud of.
Having chased the intimidating Max Meyer after just four innings, Randy Arozarena started off the fifth with a single and then, in an act of friendship to me, constantly distracted and taunted Ronny Henriquez to the point that Henriquez became the first pitcher I’ve seen to lose track of the situation and step off the mound three times, resulting in a violation that awarded Arozarena second base for free. In the balk equivalent of a bat drop, Arozarena strutted down to second rather than jogging, a pimp job so deservedly ostentatious it wins him today’s Sun Hat Award for notable individual contribution to a game. With Hernandez on tilt, J.P. Crawford took the baton and hit one of the most convincing home runs of his career. Under the circumstances, it felt like a team effort from Randy and J.P.
On Saturday’s Meet at the Mitt, we discussed J.P., and I said that I’d feel better if more of his non-dink-and-dunk contact looked, well, like this.
With a 7-2 lead to protect, the Mariners bullpen had to cover four innings. In the sixth, Augustin Ramirez hit his second big fly of the series, an upper tank shot off Collin Snider. Snider then got into further trouble, validating my view that people have been too quick to buy into Collin Snider, and then got out of it, validating the view of the people who have bought into Collin Snider. Gabe Speier covered the seventh with a pair of strikeouts that made me want a cigarette afterwards.
Now having a 7-3 lead to protect over two innings, the Mariners should have been safe, but Seattle’s shakiest consistent reliever, Trent Thornton, gave up three runs in the eighth, quickly making it a one-run game. Yet as Kate pointed out to me, this was just being a friend to Andrés Muñoz, by giving Muñoz a chance to solidify his All-Star campaign with another one-run save, which he did. A friend indeed.
So the Mariners finished the game off with a 7-6 win, completing their sixth series win in a row, and with the Rangers losing today’s game in epic fashion, that brings Seattle into sole possession of first place in the AL West. The Mariners are throwing a party right now, and they’re inviting everyone they know.
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