The Seattle Mariners are a mandate from the masses, bury Kansas City Royals crown in mud

There is no royalty in baseball. Sure, there are legacy teams, and even legacy players, but the sport exists more as a meritocracy than anything else. The Seattle Mariners have been finding levels of success possibly never seen before by this franchise, and have been doing so not being led by some figurehead with sole possession of power, but rather by a democratic participation from up and down the rotation, the bullpen, and the lineup. Despite their nearly complete play, the Mariners have had the Kansas City Royals be a thorn in their side as of late, making games much more close than their record would suggest they might. In today’s game the Mariners emphatically said “I didn’t vote for you” to baseball’s false kings with an overwhelming 15-2 victory.

The one sided nature of the game didn’t explode immediately, but there were hints in the differences of the first two innings from each team’s respective starters. Logan Gilbert opened up the game for the Mariners with two efficient innings, needing less than twenty pitches, facing the minimum, and striking out Salvador Perez on three pitches along the way. His counterpart Jordan Lyles was not so lucky, falling behind in counts and needing almost twice as many pitches to get through the two, but ultimately went scoreless and racked up three strikeouts.

Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images

From there LoGi cruised. He only allowed two hits on the night, the first a Dairon Blanco line drive into left for a single in the third inning. Blanco would ultimately reach second with a steal and third on a fielder’s choice, but the threat ended there. The second hit and lone run that Gilbert would give up came in the fifth inning when Drew Waters took a fastball perfectly at the bottom of the zone and turned it around into the right field stands. The Mariners already had a comfortable lead at that point, and Logan was unphased. Escaping the fifth without any more damage he would go on to last a total of seven innings, throwing eighty-three pitches, and racking up seven strikeouts. He racked up sixteen whiffs on his pitches, and eight came on this year’s improved slider. It was far from the most dominant we’ve seen Walter, but it was more than enough to keep his team in the game if it ended up being close.

It did not end up being close. The revolution came for Jordan Lyles in the bottom of the third inning. Everyone from the Mariners starting lineup made an appearance, with Josh Rojas starting and ending the inning. Josh Rojas not only started out the inning, and the scoring, but he did so with a blast that only continues to silence the narrative that he was the throw in for the Sewald trade.

Very quickly Lyles was reminiscing fondly on that solo shot. A J.P. Crawford double and Suárez and Raleigh walks loaded the bases, with a Julio grounder being the only out so far. Then Teoscar Hernández said “no farcical aquatic ceremonies here” and went deep for a grand slam, getting to celebrate with an authentic, valued aquatic ceremony in lifting the home run trident, and lifting his team to an early 5-0 lead.

In the first two innings Lyles had racked up two strikeouts, but I left out against who. The first was against Teo, who now had his revenge. The second one had come against Mike Ford, who in the third inning, got his revenge as well.

Pesky false monarchs be damned. The Mariners now held a decisive 7-0 lead over the pseudo-royalty from Kansas City, behind one of their many dominant starters in Logan Gilbert. From there the game could have been comfortable for the Mariners, as is the case when the opposing team needs two grand slams to take the lead. Seattle didn’t settle for comfortable, and instead opted to remind their foes that supreme power should come from a mandate of the masses, and so the masses of Mariners did so mandate it. After hanging seven in the third, they would go on to score in every inning they batted in for the rest of the game (only needing to pitch the top of the ninth to secure the win). They hit a total of seven home runs, tying for the fifth time a franchise record.

The next home run in the game also happened to be one of record. Julio Rodríguez came up to bat in the bottom of the fifth with two outs and one runner on, and at the time Seattle had a 9-1 lead. One pitch is all it took, and Julio hit his fiftieth career home run, surpassing Alex Rodriguez as the quickest Mariner to ever reach the milestone.

The next one to go yard was Cal Raleigh in the bottom of the sixth. He lead off the inning and quickly fell behind 0-2, but was able to work his way back to a full count. It was all the setup he would need for a solo shot, his 25th of the season, and the Mariners now leading 12-1.

With such a healthy lead, the Mariners did a flurry of defensive swaps going into the seventh, swapping in José Caballero at third, Dylan Moore at shortstop, and Cade Marlowe in center field. Perhaps it was to rest their starters who more than earned it, or perhaps it was just to give some more of the team a chance to participate in all the fun. Rookie sensation Cade Marlowe certainly took advantage of the opportunity in the same inning, his two-run shot to straight-away center field putting the Mariners up 14-1.

The Royals ended up putting another on the board in the eighth, when Luke Weaver took over for Logan Gilbert. Weaver for the most part was locating well and had a fine appearance, but did allow a Samad Taylor double followed by a Maikel Garcia double, cutting the Kansas City deficit to a mere twelve runs. Teoscar Hernández didn’t like that very much, and so he personally made up the difference with the Mariners final home run of the night, a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth that rested the score at 15-2.

Surely by now, ironically, it was the Royals that were the ones shouting “help! help! I’m being repressed!”. Somewhere in the dark, subterranean depths of the American League Central cellars that cry echoes unheard. The anarcho-syndicalist commune that is the Seattle Mariners fanbase voted by a two-thirds majority that these vibes must continue, that the Sea must Rise, and the Mariners players happily obliged. Any monarchies that need be crumbled along the way will, easy feat for a team that intends on blinking out the Stars. Contributions came in this game and many of late from all sides of the ball, from players new and old, developed and acquired. The way they played today, have been playing these last two months, this Mariners team is a mandate from the masses, a constitution to chaos, and a force that no false kings or other mere mortals may be able to stop.