The good thing about the punishing grind of an MLB season is it doesn’t allow a lot of time for wallowing. Just one day after the Mariners blew a winnable game in Detroit to drop a series against the lowly Tigers, they escaped with a win in Baltimore today in the series opener against the Orioles, 6-3. There were many aspects of this game that mirrored Sunday’s heartbreaking loss, but today the Mariners came out on top thanks to some timely challenges and a big blast from Josh Naylor.
Emerson Hancock was good, not great, today. The Achilles heel in Hancock’s breakout season – aside from some yucky peripherals on his fastball – has been his occasional command outages, something that’s plagued him since he was in the minors, although his struggles with command now seem to be more related to his expanded ******* nal, especially the devastating but finicky sweeper.
That sweeper got away from Hancock in the third: he hit Blaze Alexander to lead off the inning before getting it back to strike out Sam Huff looking on the pitch. But Hancock then lost the handle on his sinker to Taylor Ward, walking him on five pitches, and losing an eight-pitch battle with Gunnar Henderson to walk the bases full. A sacrifice fly from Pete Alonso brought home the first run of the game, but Hancock was able to cap the damage there, getting Colton Cowser to fly out harmlessly to end the Orioles threat.
It wasn’t pretty – Hancock was at 69 pitches by the end of the third before bouncing back with a six-pitch fourth – with Hancock missing his good secondaries, needing to lean heavily on the sinker today, a pitch that has a propensity to get hit hard; he almost doubled up his usage of the pitch today, but also had some extra velo on the sinker, which helped keep the ball finding gloves. The only tick against Hancock was his search for command cost him about an inning of work, going just five innings a day after the Mariners got just 5.2 innings out of their starter yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Mariners hitters struggled against Orioles rookie Trey Gibson (not to be confused with umpire “Power” Tripp Gibson), making a start in place of the injured Chris Bassitt. Gibson poounded the bottom of the zone, eliciting a bunch of weak-contact groundball outs. Finally, in the fifth, Dominic Canzone led off the inning with a single, and then with one out Jhonny Pereda hit a solid line drive single (101.2 mph exit velocity). Ryan Bliss, getting a start after Colt Emerson was a late scratch with back tightness and J.P. Crawford was placed on the 10-day IL after being hit in the hand by Public Enemy #1 Framber Valdez – did his job, knocking in the run with a sac fly. Pretty good, considering Bliss had been ferried to the ballpark with such little fanfare his bags didn’t even arrive (leading to a very cute exchange postgame where similar Short King Brad Adam offered to loan Bliss some of his clothes). Cole Young, pressed into leadoff duty, kept the pressure on, cashing in his Dollar Token o
Emerson Hancock was good, not great, today. The Achilles heel in Hancock’s breakout season – aside from some yucky peripherals on his fastball – has been his occasional command outages, something that’s plagued him since he was in the minors, although his struggles with command now seem to be more related to his expanded ******* nal, especially the devastating but finicky sweeper.
That sweeper got away from Hancock in the third: he hit Blaze Alexander to lead off the inning before getting it back to strike out Sam Huff looking on the pitch. But Hancock then lost the handle on his sinker to Taylor Ward, walking him on five pitches, and losing an eight-pitch battle with Gunnar Henderson to walk the bases full. A sacrifice fly from Pete Alonso brought home the first run of the game, but Hancock was able to cap the damage there, getting Colton Cowser to fly out harmlessly to end the Orioles threat.
It wasn’t pretty – Hancock was at 69 pitches by the end of the third before bouncing back with a six-pitch fourth – with Hancock missing his good secondaries, needing to lean heavily on the sinker today, a pitch that has a propensity to get hit hard; he almost doubled up his usage of the pitch today, but also had some extra velo on the sinker, which helped keep the ball finding gloves. The only tick against Hancock was his search for command cost him about an inning of work, going just five innings a day after the Mariners got just 5.2 innings out of their starter yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Mariners hitters struggled against Orioles rookie Trey Gibson (not to be confused with umpire “Power” Tripp Gibson), making a start in place of the injured Chris Bassitt. Gibson poounded the bottom of the zone, eliciting a bunch of weak-contact groundball outs. Finally, in the fifth, Dominic Canzone led off the inning with a single, and then with one out Jhonny Pereda hit a solid line drive single (101.2 mph exit velocity). Ryan Bliss, getting a start after Colt Emerson was a late scratch with back tightness and J.P. Crawford was placed on the 10-day IL after being hit in the hand by Public Enemy #1 Framber Valdez – did his job, knocking in the run with a sac fly. Pretty good, considering Bliss had been ferried to the ballpark with such little fanfare his bags didn’t even arrive (leading to a very cute exchange postgame where similar Short King Brad Adam offered to loan Bliss some of his clothes). Cole Young, pressed into leadoff duty, kept the pressure on, cashing in his Dollar Token o
2 months ago
