Mariners roll to decisive win over Red Sox with revamped lineup
BOSTON – With Major League Baseball’s trade deadline, and its incessant speculation, rumor-mongering and its intoxicating combination of excitement and anxiety now officially over, the focus returned to the Seattle Mariners’ quest to win their first division title since 2001 and not the potential trades that could make it become reality. It’s just about baseball.
As Hickory High head coach Norman Dale famously said in the movie “Hoosiers,” “This is your team.”
Well, sort of.
The Mariners are still without J.P. Crawford and Julio Rodriguez, who are both on the injured list and back in Seattle, and reliever J.T. Chargois, who was acquired in a trade with the Marlins earlier in the day and has yet to report.
But any success or failure over the next 53 games will essentially come from the players within the organization. There are no outside reinforcements coming.
Tuesday night was another step in that direction.
With a lineup featuring their latest acquisition, first baseman Justin Turner, the Mariners rolled to a decisive 10-6 victory over the Red Sox.
“I think there’s a sense of relief and I think there’s a sense of excitement amongst our players,” M’s manager Scott Servais said of the deadline being over and mentioning the trades to land Turner, Randy Arozarena and Yimi Garcia. “With the additions that we were able to make, our organization stepped up. That means a lot, especially to a team who’s probably predominantly a young team. Those guys are pros, and they’re going to be really good. They’re going to have some rough spots along the way, but they’re going to teach our young guys a lot as we go through the next couple of months. So I’m really excited about it, as is everybody in that clubhouse.”
A night after scoring seven runs, but still getting drubbed by seven runs, the Mariners reached double-digit runs for the fifth time this season and the second time on the current road trip, highlighted by Dylan Moore’s three-run double in a five-run fifth inning.
Turner made his presence felt in his first plate appearance as a Mariner. With Victor Robles on second, the veteran right-handed hitter punched a two-strike single into right field to give Seattle a 1-0 lead in the top of the first off old friend James Paxton. Turner later added another RBI on a hard ground ball to first base, also with two strikes.
“He’s such a pro and a credit to him,” Servais said. “He’s been in the league a long time. He doesn’t take it for granted, but I’m looking forward to having him continue to impact our team. He’s been here one day and just the talk amongst our hitters and how to go about at-bats and you just watched what he does. He just doesn’t give anything away.”
Seattle got a quality start from Luis Castillo, who pitched six innings, allowing three runs on six hits, with a walk and four strikeouts.
His three runs allowed came in the third inning. Pitching with a 1-0 lead, Castillo issued a one-out walk to Wilyer Abreu and gave up a single to Masataka Yoshida. Facing the always-dangerous Rafael Devers, Castillo got up 0-2 on a called first-pitch strike and a swing and miss on a fastball at the top of the strike zone. He went back to that same pitch for the strikeout, but Devers got on top of it and sent a fly ball over the Green Monster for a three-run opposite-field homer.
“I think I was surprised more that it went out than that he hit it,” Castillo said through interpreter Freddy Llanos. “I felt like in any other ballpark that had a chance to get an out. But it was a good pitch placement, but he was able to contact it and hit a home run. So all the credit to him.”
Castillo came back to retire the next two batter to end the inning and he worked the next three scoreless, allowing only two hits.
The Mariners picked up a run in the fourth inning on Jorge Polanco’s solo homer over the monster. It was his 10th homer of the season and fourth on this road trip.
But thanks to a pair of fielding miscues, the Mariners were able to roll up five runs in the fifth inning. Two errors and another missed play by the Red Sox allowed the Mariners to tie the game and then load the bases for Moore, who launched a double just off the top of the monster. It was just a foot from being a grand slam.
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“I haven’t played here enough to know what’s going to go and what’s not,” Moore said. “I knew I hit it pretty good. If you hit a fly ball to left, you put your head down and run. If it goes over, it goes over and if not, you try to get a double.”
The Mariners picked up three more runs in the sixth inning against another old friend, reliever Yohan Ramirez. Polanco hit an RBI double off the wall, Cal Raleigh scored on a wild pitch and Polanco later scored on a throwing error by catcher Connor Wong on Moore’s stolen base attempt.
“Really excited about our offense,” Servais said. “The guys are really starting to come together. Certainly, the additions have helped, but some of the guys that have been here all year are picking it up as well.”
The Red Sox picked up three runs in the seventh off Tayler Saucedo to make it closer than it needed to be. But lockdown innings from Garcia and Andres Muñoz ended the game.