Mariners escape with win after Mitch Haniger draws bases-loaded walk in extra innings

SEATTLE – Style points? Nah.

Highlight reels? Nope.

Victory? Yep.

Mitch Haniger stepped to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th inning. A crowd of 36,629 fans — the majority cheering for the Mariners — stood in anticipation. Could the player that has worn a Mariners uniform longer than anyone in the clubhouse come through with a walk-off hit.

Not so much.

Instead, Haniger refused to give in to hard-throwing right-hander Carlos Estevez, who the Phillies acquired from the Angels at the deadline for these sort of situations.

Down 0-2, Haniger found himself in an unenviable position.

“I was just trying to stya on his fastball cause it’s his best pitch,” he said.

He refused to chase a 99-mph fastball out of the zone on the third pitch. The fourth pitch? Well, a second 99-mph looked like a strike to everyone but Haniger and home plate umpire Ryan Wills.

Haniger fouled off a 98-mph fastball in the zone. But the first slider of the at-bat ran off the plate to push the count full. And Estevez’s 3-2 pitch was a non-competitive fastball up in the zone that Haniger watched for a walk-off walk in Seattle’s 6-5 win over Philadelphia.

It was a fitting end to a strange game that saw the Mariners fall behind early and rally to tie the game and then hold the Phillies lineup scoreless for the final five innings.

The celebration was a little more controlled and muted than a normal walk-off victory.

“A win is a win, but yeah, I mean hitting a walk-off feels a little better,” he said with a grin.

With their victory and the Astros’ 6-1 loss to the Rays, the Mariners moved into first place alone atop the AL West at 58-53. They will go for a series sweep on Sunday in a pitchers duel featuring all-star starting pitchers Logan Gilbert and Zach Wheeler.

“An outstanding effort from our entire ballclub tonight,” manager Scott Servais said. “No quit, no giving up. Things were looking a little bleak there early on after they put the big inning on us in the fifth inning. Momentum win. It wasn’t pretty, but we’ll take it.”

Down 5-0 going into the bottom of the fifth, the Mariners were trending toward another loss where they produced minimal offense.

Haniger started the comeback in the bottom of the fifth, smashing a solo homer to left field off lefty Kolby Allard for the Mariners first run of the game.

Still a four-run deficit wouldn’t be easy to overcome over the final four innings against the Phillies’ bullpen.

Instead, the Mariners almost did it in one inning.

When Philly reliever Jeff Hoffman walked to the mound to start the sixth inning, a rally seemed unlikely. The hard-throwing right-hander hadn’t allowed more than two runs in an inning all season. He had a stunning 0.98 ERA in 46 appearances coming into the game.

When the inning came to an end, Hoffman’s ERA had increased to 1.72 and the game was tied at 5-5.

How?

Randy Arozarena led off with a double. With one out, Justin Turner took a 97-mph fastball off his shoulder and Jorge Polanco followed with a run-scoring single through the right side to make it 5-2. Hoffman struck out Dylan Moore for the second out of the inning.

But Haniger worked a walk to load the bases and keep the inning going.

Servais inserted Luke Raley as a pinch-hitter for Garver. The strategy worked as Raley yanked a double to score two runs.

“Quality at-bats against Hoffman, who’s had a really good year,” Servais said. “We put ourselves in a position that if we could get a big swing out of Raley, it would pay off. It did. It wasn’t just Luke coming through, but the other guys leading up to that giving us that opportunity. Awesome.”

When Bryce Harper couldn’t cleanly corral Josh Rojas’ ground ball with a diving attempt, Haniger scored easily on the infield single to tie the game. Seeing the ball squirt away from Harper, Raley tried to score from second on the play but was just out on a tag at the plate.

Facing a lineup that can mash fastballs and with several dangerous left-handed hitters, Mariners starter Bryce Miller had to grind through the first four innings to get outs. He allowed a run in the first and then worked the next three scoreless, including a lengthy fourth inning that featured a 12-pitch battle with Bryce Harper that resulted in a double.

His outing fell apart in the fifth inning. With one out, he allowed a single to Austin Hays, walked Kyle Schwarber and then gave up a leadoff single to Treat Turner to load the bases.

Wanting a lefty to face Harper, Servais called on Tayler Saucedo to face the Phillies slugger. Saucedo got Harper to fly out to shallow left field for the second out of the inning. But he wouldn’t get the third out. Alec Bohm singled to right field to score two runs and left-handed hitting Brandon Marsh followed with a single to right to score two more runs. Right-hander J.T Chargois had to finish the inning for Saucedo, retiring J.T. Realmuto on a ground out.