Mariners run wild, complete wild run with 9-3 win over Anaheim
It all started when the Seattle Mariners hired Eric Young, Jr. to be their first base coach, and so began the craziest summer of my life.
As soon as EY came to Seattle, me and the boys started running wild. But it wasn’t that the fastest guys were suddenly taking off at every good opportunity. They already do that. It was more that even those of us aren’t the fleetest of foot suddenly had the intel and the confidence to try.
Take the second inning of today’s game. Emerson Hancock was looking good, locating his pitches well, pounding the edges of the zone, and picking up a ton of weak contact. But he’d still let the Angels string together a few singles at 77, 81, and 85 mph for one run, and then in the next inning gave up a dinger to Jorge Soler in that weird little box down the left field line where I swear I’ve only ever seen opposing hitters home. The Mariners really ought to move that wall in and raise the line there.
But EY wasn’t going to let Hancock pitch from behind, helping Mitch Garver of all people steal second base after he’d worked a walk. Garver’s in the slowest 11% of the league and he’s never stolen more than one base in a season. But here we were at the end of April and, despite drastically reduced playing time, Garver already had his second bag of the year. Leo Rivas eventually drove him home to tie the game at 2-2 (the first run courtesy of Randy Arozarena giving the first pitch of the inning a 400-foot ride into the upper deck).
Just an inning later, when Cal Raleigh reached on an error, EY told him about Tyler Anderson’s move to the plate. So after Cal got to second on a passed ball, Cal timed up the move and took off for third base, getting there easily and scoring when the ball bounced off his helmet. That steal of third is already Cal’s fourth bag of the year. He’d started running a bit more last year, but nothing like since EY took over. He’s on pace for just the third 20-steal season by a catcher in the past quarter century.
