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Mariners rage against the dying of the light, win 6-5

A companion piece to Monday's game, the Mariners overcame an early 5-0 deficit and slugged their way to a comeback win.

By Nathan Bishop
Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

  • I am very tired so we are sticking with bullet points again. You, and I, will survive it. The Mariners won today, 6-5. They were behind 5-0, a day after leading 5-0. They did not win yesterday, but today they did. They were behind because Mike Montgomery's account is so very over-drafted. The left-hander could not get out of the 2nd inning and more than that, here's what happened to him:

    line drive, ground ball, ground ball, walk, line drive, fly ball to the warning track, line drive, line drive, home run, hard ground ball, deep fly ball, line drive. 

    That's it. No strikeouts. No pop ups. No weak contact. Rip after rip after rip. Mike Montgomery threw back to back shutouts a few months ago. The one against the Royals with 10 strikeouts and no walks is one of the finest performances any Mariner pitcher has put together all year. But he has no business starting games right now. With Roenis Elias up I fully expect for Mike Montgomery's starts, at least in 2015, to be at an end.

  • Let's talk about something fun. Let's talk about Ketel Marte. If you haven't already I encourage you to check out Colin's post from earlier today. I will wait. Great you're back. We've had a habit recently of the topics of our post seemingly making us look bad the very same day. Well today Ketel Marte did Colin a solid. Today Marte went 3-5, seemingly jackrabbited his way all over the field on offense and defense, and looked every bit the poor man's Jose Reyes that I can kind of imagine when I have 3 beers and squint at the TV.

    Over his first few weeks Marte was really slapping at the ball, almost with a Baltimore Chop style of swing. But recently he's been showing off the line drive stroke a bit more and today he almost busted out his first Mariner home run:

    Marte Triple


    Very good hustle Billy Burns, but neither your stereotype-defying vertical leap nor the draconian restrictions of some profit monster will stop me from enjoying this gif. Marte raised his wRC+ to 143 today, which is the highest of any shortstop with >90 PA. That is a preposterously small sample size and means very, very little. But it's fun. This bullet point was about fun remember?

  • After it was 5-0 the Mariners' comeback began with a home run, because they hit a lot of home runs. The first home run came from the Mother of Dingers Nelson Cruz himself. Jesse Chavez hung a 1-1 changeup and Cruz hit one of those "wait people don't hit home runs like that at Safeco Field" home runs that it feels like Nelson Cruz is the only one capable of doing. It was his 38th home run of the year, extending his on base streak to 34, and he is just absolutely amazing.

  • Robinson Cano blooped a double and became the first player in baseball history to start his career with 11 straight seasons of 30+ doubles. Also, this:

    That's a good list that Cano finds himself a part of. Well done, Robbie.

  • Other things, and we're going fast now: Logan Morrison thwocked a baseball that knifed through the night air and pinged off the foul pole to make the score 5-3.


    It was Morrison's 28th birthday.

  • As the season has crumbled around the Mariners no part of the team has crumbled more than the poor bullpen. 2014's mighty deeds are long forgotten, as are the majority of men who accomplished them. So with all the misery of August perhaps the biggest story of the night was that Edgar Olmos, Logan Kensing, Carson Smith and Tom Wilhelmsen combined to throw 7 2/3 shutout baseball. They were fortunate, yes. The group combined to walk 5. But they also struck out 7 and allowed precious little hard contact. Edgar Olmos even got his first major league win, which is kind of like a lot of life's rights of passage. It's hyped, you don't feel whole without it, and completely meaningless. Good for your Edgar.

  • Austin Jackson had 2 hits, a double and what proved to be the decisive RBI single to put the Mariners ahead. He has cleared waivers and boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooy does he look ready to help some contending club down the stretch I mean howie whoo boy you betcha goodness gracious my stars what a player. Be a fortunate and shrewd GM what makes that trade I tell ya.

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