Despite hard-luck loss, Mariners’ Logan Gilbert ‘proud’ of his transformation
SEATTLE – Logan Gilbert still can’t quite believe his own transformation.
As a rookie in 2021, Gilbert had one of the majors’ most effective fastballs and, for good reason, he threw it often – 61.5% of the time, to be exact.
His fastball usage has gradually decreased over the past three seasons; he threw it 53.9% of the time in 2022, 41.9% in 2023 and just 31.8% this season.
He’s a much, much different pitcher now, and that was evident in another quality start for the Seattle Mariners’ All-Star on Sunday against a loaded Philadelphia Phillies lineup.
Of the 98 pitches he threw over six innings, Gilbert threw just 24 fastballs – leaning heavily on his slider (26), curveball (22), splitter (12) and cutter (four).
“I’m pretty proud of that, honestly, that I can get to that point that we need to do that [lean more on secondary pitches],” Gilbert said. “And working with the catchers, them knowing me well enough, having trust in me, I have trust in them, where we can go to that and feel like we’re not really backed into a corner as much. There’s a lot of freedom with that.”
In a premier pitching matchup featuring two of baseball’s best right-handers, Zack Wheeler threw eight shutout innings against the Mariners to outduel Gilbert in the Phillies’ 6-0 victory at T-Mobile Park.
But it was an important bounce-back start for Gilbert, who had surrendered a season-high seven runs in just 2.2 innings in his last start at Fenway Park in Boston. For context, he had allowed just six runs – total – across five starts in June.
On Sunday, Gilbert allowed only a leadoff homer to Kyle Schwarber – on a 98-mph fastball Gilbert left over the middle of the plate on a 2-0 count.
Gilbert scattered just four hits over six innings, with no walks, seven strikeouts and 17 swings and misses. He was hit with the hard-luck loss and his record fell to 6-8 this season (underscoring why pitchers’ win-loss record is mostly useless).
“That team hits the fastball really well, so mostly about getting ahead and then we have more freedom to do what we want,” he said. “We definitely wanted to spin today.”
It was Gilbert’s 18th quality start of the season (six innings and three runs or fewer), tied with Baltimore’s Corbin Burnes for the MLB lead.
Gilbert also surpassed Marco Gonzales (631) for the 10th-most strikeouts in Mariners history. He finished the game with 634 career strikeouts. No. 9 on the list is Joel Piñeiro with 658 strikeouts.
In the second inning, Gilbert had an epic sequence against the Phillies’ Nick Castellanos, who fouled off nine pitches before Gilbert finally got him to ground out on the 15th pitch of the at-bat.
The 15 pitches were the most in a plate appearance in the majors this season and the longest plate appearance against the Mariners since pitch tracking began in 1988.