A perfect night in M’sville, mighty Murphy hit two out

There aren’t many nights in Mariners fandom constructed of such unbridled positivity as this evening’s compounded events. To list a few...

• The Seattle Mariners defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-4 in a comfortable victory that rarely threatened to be as scary as its one-run deficit suggests.
• The Boston Red Sox lost 4-3 to their bleached counterparts, with the ChiSox staving off a late rally.
• The New York Yankees didn’t so much get their teeth kicked in as they curbstomped themselves in game one of a Subway Series with the Mets, losing 10-3 to their NL rivals.
• The Toronto Blue Jays lost to literally the Baltimore Orioles, and their Cy Young contender ace, Robbie Ray, seemingly threw a fit about the O’s cheating? The process was confusing, the outcome was delightful.
• Down in Arkansas, Julio Rodríguez went 4-5 with two home runs and a walk, including this opposite field obliteration.

• Everything else you could want just... went... well?

Marco Gonzales threw six innings, gave up three runs, and despite some sloppiness the M’s got a win against an inferior team, something they failed to do recently against the Kansas City Royals due to being punished as badly as possible in every possible instance by Salvador Pérez. Arizona has no Sal, and Seattle gave no quarter. Despite a couple of errors inspiring two (or, really, three) of Arizona’s four runs, the M’s floated to victory on the shoulders of backstop Tom Murphy.

Two home runs from Seattle’s leering catcher, along with a leadoff homer from J.P. Crawford and a well-placed single by Ty France were all the M’s needed for their 5-4 victory. Despite being picked off twice, Dylan Moore recorded two stolen bases, pushing himself to 20 steals on the season, an impressive total for a part-time player who hasn’t exactly been an OBP machine. Scoring on France’s single after the second of his semi-accidental steals was a reminder that even in a three-true-outcome dominated era, efficient base-stealing is a valuable skill.

There’s not much more to say about Seattle in this game. Arizona stinks to high heaven. It’s nice to see the M’s consistently take and retake or maintain a lead against an inferior club. Hell, it’s nice to feel justified in saying a club is inferior to the Mariners. They finish tonight one (1) game back of a playoff spot, and just two (2) games back of the first Wild Card spot. No, it’s not likely these M’s make the playoffs, but there’s nothing silly in tuning in every night at this point, and dragging your friends, family, and anyone else who will listen to do so too. There’s just three weeks left, for goodness sake.

Why not?