Mitch Haniger comes through again for Mariners with walk-off double against Tigers
SEATTLE – When his bases-loaded walk beat the Phillies on Saturday night, Mitch Haniger admitted that the celebration of a walk-off walk wasn’t quite as much fun as a walk-off hit.
But with his team on the brink of being of swept by the Detroit Tigers, an already mediocre team that was gutted at the trade deadline, Haniger came through with another walk-off hit.
With his team trailing by two runs in the ninth inning, Haniger stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. After falling behind 1-2 and fouling off a slider meant to strike him out, Haniger stayed on a 96-mph fastball from one-time Mariner Will Vest, sending a slicing line drive to right field for a 4-3 win.
Tigers right fielder Ryan Vlade tried to make a lunging grab on the ball and it got past him, rolling to the wall and allowing all three runs to score, giving Haniger his eighth walk-off hit with the Mariners, a club record.
It was the first time the Mariners led in the series.
The Mariners looked mostly lethargic in the first eight innings, save for Luke Raley’s solo homer in the sixth.
They were trending toward a fourth consecutive loss when Vest took the mound.
Raley had a fortunated checked swing that dropped a rolling hit along the third-base line, which bounced off the bag for an infield single. Randy Arozarena followed with a single to right that put runners on the corners.
Vest came back to strike out Cal Raleigh and Justin Turner, but walked Jorge Polanco to load the bases.
Seattle salvaged a win in a mostly disappointing series and moved back into a tie with the Astros, who were off on Thursday, atop the AL West.
Seattle got a solid start from Bryan Woo. He pitched 6⅔ innings, allowing three runs on five hits, with a walk and seven strikeouts.
His outing was ruined by one bad inning.
It came after he was perfect through the first four, retiring the first 12 guys he faced, including five strikeouts.
But that run of consecutive outs ended when left-swinging Bligh Madris stayed on a change-up running off the plate, punching a soft ground ball just past Josh Rojas’ diving attempt for the first hit of the game. Justyn Henry-Malloy made it back-to-back singles with an opposite-field ground ball base hit to right field. Parker Meadows, who saved the Tigers’ victory in the field on Thursday night, drove in the first run, taking advantage of a change-up that stayed up and in the middle of the zone, ripping a double down the first-base line that scored Madris.
Woo came back to strike out Dillon Dingler for the first out of the inning. But after getting up 0-2 on No. 8 hitter Zach McKinstry, he couldn’t finish him off the strikeout. Woo missed with a pair of fastballs and then left a slider on the inner half of the plate that was smacked into the gap in right-center for a two-run double.
The Mariners’ lone run came in the sixth when Raley hit a solo homer to right field off lefty Bryan Sammons.
Seattle had the leadoff runner reach base in the seventh and eighth only to see immediate double plays erase the threat.