Mariners Complete Wild Comeback For 11-10 Walk-Off Win

The Mariners pulled off a stunning comeback today to beat the Chicago in back-to-back games, this time in walk-off fashion. Thanks to the Shawn O’Malley’s key two-run single, the team completed a nine-run swing in the M’s favor.

Through the first third of the ballgame, the Mariners offense looked quite listless. They could only muster one hit and one stolen base -both of which were produced by Taylor Motter- and the team had been struck out four times.

As the Cubs began to slowly pile on runs through the middle innings, the game seemed all but lost even with a few frames remaining in the contest.

The Cubs offense had piled on 10 runs from the 5th-7th innings and did so with a bang. All of their runs were driven in by extra-base hits (one triple, two doubles, and three home runs).

This did not deter the Mariners from attempting to come all the way back, though. In the final two and a half frames, the M’s arms and bats regrouped after lackluster outings from Nick Vincent, Thyago Vieira, and Micah Owings who allowed all of the Cubs runs, and were able to chip away at the eigh-run 10-2 deficit.

Vieira, in particular, has been hard to watch in his last two starts. As a fireball thrower, he seems to be facing the all too common issue of pitch-control for players of his kind. In his last outing, he walked three men and allowed a hit and an earned run.

Today he was crushed after striking out the first batter he saw. He gave up a single, a wild pitch, three RBI doubles (two that hit the outfield fence) and a home run to near dead-center.

Nevertheless, after the 7th inning stretch, the M’s put together three consecutive singles with one out. They added one run one a sac fly from Kyle Waldrop, then came their first big punch that clearly stunned the Cub’s pitchers.

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It was a mighty shot from the Mariners 2nd round draft pick in 2012 who is slowly working his way up the minor league ladder, Joe Decarlo, with a three-run blast to cut the lead to 10-6.

In the next frame, just moments after Mariners play-by-play man, Dave Sims, had talked up Luis Libertado stating, “This kid can really run.”, the young speedster cracked the ball off the center field wall and it ricocheted all the way to right field to help him hit an inside-the-park home run that scored two in his first spring training at-bat.

The Chicago lead was now 10-8.

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To give some context to the rarity of an inside-the-park home run on a first at-bat, in baseball history, only three men have ever accomplished this feat, the last being all the way back in 1975 by the San Fransico Giants, Johnnie LeMaster.

In the bottom of the 9th, after the Mariners had cut the lead to 10-9 off a D.J. Peterson double, the M’s used small ball to put runners in scoring position with one out and O’Malley coming to the plate. O’Malley didn’t hesitate to finish off the impressive comeback, taking a stab at the first pitch he saw in the at-bat and driving it deep enough to right to bring home the winning run.

In total, the M’s collected 18 hits in a game which so both teams combine for 33 hits and 21 runs. But what mattered most was that the M’s came all the way back from what looked like an impossible hole to defeat the defending world champions.

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The Mariners head into the weekend with a lot of confidence after today’s win. Tomorrow they will face the Cincinnati Reds at 12:10 PM PST looking for the 10th win of spring training.