Mariners exercise their legs on home run trots, exorcise some demons, blank the White Sox 10-0

A dose of much-needed joy after a miserable homestand

After the absolute nadir of the homestand where the Mariners scraped just one win out against the Astros, losing first place in the AL West, and then were swept for the first time this season against the lowly Angels, the Mariners desperately needed a lift. They made a significant move on the off-day, trading for Randy Arozarena, and that vote of confidence in the team seemed to lift all the boats today, as the Mariners crushed the White Sox, blanking them 10-0.

Drew Thorpe dominated the Mariners over five innings in his debut last time out; that wasn’t the case today. The team literally came out swinging, stacking runs against the young White Sox starter and knocking him out of the game early. Personally, I was happy with the first inning after the Mariners got the clutch two-out hit they’ve so often been missing. Cal Raleigh hit a one-out double, and Jorge Polanco followed him with a walk; the two then advanced to second and third on a pickoff throw error by White Sox starter Drew Thorpe, who wasn’t as sharp as when the Mariners saw him in his debut. Hits, walks, controlling the count, taking advantage of another team’s mistakes: these are a few of my favorite things. Haniger then worked a walk of his own to load the bases. However, after Luke Raley went down hacking after a changeup for the second out of the inning, it felt like the same old offensively inept Mariners.

But Jason Vosler stepped to the plate and did what so few Mariners hitters have been able to do lately, cashing in two runners with an aggressive first-pitch swing on a fastball smack in the middle of the plate that Vosler drove into right field. See what happens when we’re not all swinging for the fences all the time, fellas? Mitch Garver then followed that up with a double of his own to give the Mariners a nice 3-0 lead, equalling the number of runs they scored over the entire Angels series right in the first inning.

But wait, there’s more. Things then proceeded to get very silly as the Mariners exorcised some serious offensive demons, with Josh Rojas, Dylan Moore, and Victor Robles going back-to-back-to-back with homers: the first time the Mariners have ever gone back-to-back-to-back with home runs in the first inning in their history.

Jared Shuster came on after that and got the final out of the inning, but not before the Mariners had hung one of the more crooked numbers we’ve seen out of this team since...the game in Kansas City we shall not speak of.

After the Mariners went down quietly against Shuster in innings two and three, I will admit that I had some traumatic flashbacks to that game in Kansas City, where the Mariners built a big lead early and then frittered it away in one of the most frustrating losses of the year. Thankfully, Jorge Polanco decided it was his turn to check into the home run club and pushed the Mariners’ lead out to double digits:

The Mariners didn’t do any more damage against Shuster but they did keep the pressure on enough to force him out in the fifth inning after he issued two walks, bringing in Sammy Peralta, who immediately walked Victor Robles to load the bases. Cal Raleigh grounded out to end the threat, but the Mariners did over the course of the game force the White Sox to burn two long relievers, forcing Shuster to throw 68 pitches and Peralta 71, knocking those two out for the rest of the series and putting pressure on their starters to go deep over the next two games.

Meanwhile, George Kirby was cruelly effective, scattering base hits here and there—his only clean inning was the fourth—but also not allowing a White Sox batter to sniff second base until the fifth inning, when he surrendered a leadoff double to something called a “Brooks Baldwin” (seems fake). He also issued a walk to Luis Robert Jr. in that inning, giving the White Sox their first multiple runners on base in the game, but was able to get Tommy Pham to ground out easily to quell any threat—not that there’s much of a threat when it’s 10-0.

Kirby also issued a leadoff double in the seventh to Paul DeJong, who has been a thorn in the Mariners’ side this season, inasmuch as any White Sox batter can be considered a thorn. Kirby came back to strike out the aforementioned Brooks Baldwin on a wicked back foot slider, and then got two easy flyouts to complete seven scoreless at just 87 pitches.

Kirby jiggered his pitch mix some tonight, going more two-seamer heavy than he has in the past, but mixed his pitches well, getting ahead in counts and then getting the White Sox to expand up, tallying seven strikeouts over his day and never really breaking a sweat. Postgame, Servais gave credit to Garver, catching Kirby again, for calling a good game that got Kirby to use all of his pitches. Angie Mentink also pointed out in her “Mentink Moments” postgame on ROOT Sports what a good job Garver did behind the plate for Kirby, stealing some strikes by gently moving his glove back into the zone to earn Kirby a slightly bigger zone, allowing Kirby to then expand more aggressively and get those chase swings. Between that and his performance at the plate—3-for-3 with two walks—Garver earns the Sun Hat award for the night, since he didn’t get the WPA award.

Trent Thornton, on in relief of Kirby in the eighth, teased the White Sox with the possibility of scoring, allowing a one-out double to Pham and walking Vaughn, but immediately came back to get Eloy Jimenez to ground into an inning-ending double play. Those are so great when it’s not the Mariners hitting into them, it turns out. The White Sox would hit into another double play to end the game, with Brooks Baldwin shooting a ball up the middle against reliever Gabe Speier, working for just the second time after coming off the IL; Polanco made a particularly nice turn, feeding to Leo Rivas (in at short in place of DMo), who then fired a bullet to Vosler at first. It was refreshingly clean baseball after the Mariners had gotten a little sloppy in that respect during their sad slide.

If there’s a negative on tonight, it’s the fact that the Astros won again, crushing a Freddie Freeman-less Dodgers team 5-0. However, tomorrow Randy Arozarena reports to the Mariners, who get to continue playing the White Sox while the Astros continue to play the Dodgers. “Getting Randy is huge,” said Kirby postgame. “I think everyone’s excited.”

“It’s always nice to add an electric player like Arozarena,” added Josh Rojas postgame. “To know the front office is on the same page as us and knows that we’re just a few games like tonight away from getting it clicking and moving together as an offense, it’s pretty nice to see.”