So you’re telling me there’s going to be 161 more of these?
What started as a humdrum night at T-Mobile Park — well, at least for the Mariners — finished with a flurry and that might actually not be a strong enough way to describe what happened on a happy Opening Night against the Giants.
The Mariners, who trailed the Giants 5-0 after six innings and 6-1 after seven innings, won it in the 10th inning when Jake Fraley walked with the bases loaded, completing what felt like two entirely different games: What happened over the first seven innings, and then the craziness that occurred after.
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In the end, the Mariners had an, let’s say, unusual 8-7 victory over the Giants in 10 innings. Yes, 1-0 is a nice start, but it was more how the Mariners got there that made this night so memorable.
“That’s why you play all nine innings,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “It didn’t look so great early on, but we got some things rolling.”
And it didn’t always take a big hit to get things rolling on this comeback. Patience had a lot to do with it, too. The Mariners took nine walks on Thursday from seven Giants pitchers, and maybe none more important than the one a 23-year-old rookie playing in his first big league game took in the eighth inning.
Rookie outfielder Taylor Trammell took a walk with the bases loaded in the eighth inning and helped fuel the six-run inning. It was no ordinary walk. Trammell, a left-handed hitter, had a nine-pitch at-bat against hard-throwing Giants reliever Jarlin García and fouled off three pitches. Simply put, Trammell wouldn’t give in. His walk cut the lead to 6-3 and kept the inning alive as the Mariners went on to score four more runs after that for a 7-6 lead.
“If the game could be summarized in one at-bat tonight, it was probably Taylor Trammell’s at-bat … that nine-pitch walk in the bottom of the eighth against a really tough lefty,” Servais said. “He laid off some good sliders and ended up drawing a walk. It was a really pivotal at-bat in the ballgame for a guy making his major league debut … about as cool as the other side of the pillow.”
Dylan Moore followed with a two-run double and then the Giants shot themselves in the foot. Brandon Belt fielded José Marmolejos’ grounder and attempted to start what would have been an inning-ending double play. But Belt’s throw was wide of second base, and shortstop Brandon Crawford couldn’t corral the ball in the dirt as two runs would score and the Mariners took a brief 7-6 lead.
New Mariners closer Rafael Montero allowed a home run to Alex Dickerson in the ninth to tie it, but the Mariners won it in the 10th when Fraley took a walk with the bases loaded. In the top of the inning, right fielder Mitch Haniger saved a run with a diving catch near the right-field foul line.
Mitchell Evan Haniger. pic.twitter.com/tXZw8XtO0p
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) April 2, 2021
“I was going crazy,” Trammell said of Haniger’s catch.
In the 10th, with Evan White starting on second base, Trammell and Moore walked, then Fraley took the third free pass of the inning, completing a wild finish to a day that certainly started out slowly.
If nothing else, I guess we learned Thursday that these Mariners won’t be dull in 2021 (or boring). Here are a few random thoughts from Opening Day.
Marco Gonzales made his third consecutive Opening Day start for the Mariners. It’s safe to say that it didn’t go as he planned. Really, it’s pretty easy to see why.
Gonzales’ ability to move the ball in and out of the strike zone, with a diverse pitch mix, makes it difficult for hitters to square up his pitches. This is why when he’s on, you’ll often see a lot of weak contact. This isn’t just anecdotal malarkey. In 2020, Gonzales ranked in the 83rd percentile in the big leagues in exit velocity allowed (86.4 mph).
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That wasn’t the case Thursday, though.
“I certainly put us in a hole early,” Gonzales said.
In six innings against the Giants, Gonzales allowed eight batted balls with an exit velocity of 95.4 mph or higher — four that registered 104.6 mph or more, including home runs by Buster Posey (106.5 mph) and Evan Longoria (101.4 mph). The home run Austin Slater hit came in at 99.2 mph.
“They were on him early,” Servais said.
Gonzales’ final line for the night: Six innings, eight hits allowed, five earned runs, three walks (one intentional) and two strikeouts. Gonzales said after the game he was fighting through some timing issues.
There wasn’t a whole lot of offense for the Mariners early on Thursday, and some of that can be attributed to the pitching of Kevin Gausman, who held Seattle to one hit over the first six innings. That said, the Mariners certainly didn’t make him work very hard.
It might have been hard to break a sweat on a night where the temperature at first pitch was 54 degrees, but Gausman wasn’t pushed to perspiration as he set down the first nine hitters in a row, needing just 26 pitches to do so.
The Mariners didn’t get their first hit until two outs in the fourth inning (Kyle Seager double) and their second hit until a leadoff double by Evan White in the seventh inning. Once the Mariners got Gausman out of the game, well, things got a little wild. The six relievers who followed him issued seven walks.
“We had some awesome at-bats by some young players tonight,” Servais said.
Trammell had two walks and Fraley had three, none bigger than the last one that earned the Mariners the victory.
We spent most of spring talking about Trammell’s bat, and for good reason. He hit himself onto the Opening Day roster. But it wasn’t just his bat that caught the Mariners’ eye in Arizona.
Trammell worked tirelessly on his arm in the offseason and again in spring training — most notably, improving the strength of his left arm with a throwing program — on all but two of the days the team was in Arizona.
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Trammell said in a call with reporters on Wednesday that his biggest turning point this spring was his throwing — not anything he did with his bat. He talked about two outfield assists he had in Cactus League games.
“That was probably the turning point for me where my confidence grew the most,” Trammell said.
Well, he didn’t have to wait long for his first big league outfield assist. In his major league debut, Trammell notched his first assist with a strong throw in the fourth inning, nabbing Evan Longoria’s attempt to stretch a single into a double.
Taylor Trammell making those PLAYS 🔥 @Taytram24 pic.twitter.com/WnLs3UWrN7
— DaddyDimmuTV (@DaddyDimmuTv) April 2, 2021
The two pitchers who followed Gonzales fared pretty well. Casey Sadler, he of the high spin-rate fastball, worked a scoreless seventh inning with two strikeouts, and rookie Will Vest made his big league debut in the eighth inning.
Vest, a Rule 5 pick from the Tigers in December, allowed one unearned run, one walk and had a strikeout. He entered the game with the Mariners trailing 5-1 — which qualified as a soft landing, if making your big league debut can ever be regarded as a soft landing. These are the kind of games the Mariners will likely use Vest in — low-leverage situations — as he gets acclimated to the big leagues.
Vest, a former college shortstop, has the kind of upside arm with a live fastball and nasty changeup that was deemed too good to not carry as part of the eight-man bullpen coming out of spring training. He must remain on the major league roster for the entire season or be offered back to the Tigers for $50,000.
Will Vest's first professional strikeout, with the rare "Mama Mia!" reaction from Longoria pic.twitter.com/L2FPDpyvtV
— Lookout Landing (@LookoutLanding) April 2, 2021
(Photo: Elaine Thompson / Associated Press)