SEAside Thoughts: Mariners Walk-off the Champs

Mariners SEAside Thoughts Week 23

“It’s not about me. It’s not about Julio. It’s about the Seattle Mariners. The longer we stayed together, the longer we got better and better, and you see our results every day.”

-Eugenio Suarez

• The tough task against the White Sox
  • After a dominant sweep the week before over the AL Mid, and surviving a brutal rain-delayed final game against the Guardians, the Mariners were forced to get back into Seattle at 3 am. Even tougher, they had to play a day game against a desperate White Sox team.
  • The Mariners fought valiantly, and almost stole the game, but ended up falling short. That rain delay was a real bummer, as it felt it halted the potential for another dominant win streak.

• A lesson learned on Wednesday
  • Castillo looked like he was about to have a magical afternoon on Wednesday. He struck out the first seven batters faced, an American League record, before watching a four-run lead succumb to errors and pitching mistakes.
  • It was a valuable lesson for Castillo, no matter how good things are looking, the job is not finished until the 27th out. If in a similar position again in October, I believe Castillo will finish the job.
  • The series loss after such a dominant run through the AL Mid was tough, especially with the defending champs coming to town.

• The power of the Braves
  • Speaking of the champs, the Braves are unbelievable. The Dodgers are on a record pace, but I still believe that the Braves are the best team in the NFL until proven otherwise.
  • They have an absolutely loaded core that is locked in for much of the next decade.
  • This list of studs include:
    • Austin Riley
    • Ronald Acuna
    • Ozzie Albies
    • Matt Olson
    • Michael Harris II
    • Vaughn Grissom
    • William Contreras
    • Max Fried
    • Spencer Strider
    • Swanson (likely re-signs)
  • It’s a dominant team that is going to be in the hunt for numerous star free agents. This is truly a great team the Mariners went to battle with.

• The Mariners responded
  • The Mariners didn’t fold against the defending world champs, playing in a series that legitimately felt like a World Series battle.
  • After falling in a competitive game one, George Kirby outdueled Max Fried, while Ham Swaggerty and Good Vibes only crushed a couple of homers to give the Mariners a 3-1 win in game 2.
  • As great as our staff has been, George Kirby has pitched like one of the ten best pitchers in baseball in the past month plus. It’s a super small sample size, and he’s very young, but there are some real Maddux vibes going on with this dude. His command is in the top percentile of baseball, and his two-seamer is nearly unhittable.

• The wildest 9th inning you’ll ever see
  • In game 3, the Mariners looked like the better team as bombs by Julio and Suarez, plus a bulldog effort by Marco Gonzalez had the M’s up 6-2 with two outs in the 9th.
  • From there we saw the wildest 30 minutes in the entire MLB season. Massive homers by Harris and Grossman turned a 6-2 Mariners lead into a stunning 7-6 Braves.
  • With Seattle fans stunned, ROOT Sports perfectly captured a Julio Rodriguez running to the dugout smiling. After a terrible decision to bunt by Haggerty for our #1, Julio broke stat cast, by blasting a 117 mph laser nearly through the Mariners scoreboard to tie the game.
  • The crowd was electric, the building was going crazy, then Eugenio Suarez broke the simulation, blew the roof off the building, and smashed a walk-off home run into the left center field pen.
  • The Mariners won 8-7, they really took away any doubt they weren’t a playoff team, they proved they can play with the very best, and they won the city of Seattle for at least one night
  • It was a beautiful moment in the history of Mariners baseball, and we’re about to have many more in the next few weeks.

• Julio locks up ROY
  • If it wasn’t locked up already, Julio 100% took the important award for keeps after this weekend.
  • Don’t forget, by winning the award and Seattle calling him up early, the Mariners will be rewarded an extra first round draft pick this upcoming draft. Considering what Seattle has lost/graduated this season in prospects, the extra top level talent is huge for the hopes of continuing contention as a franchise.

• SEAside Thoughts Player of the Week
  • Good Vibes Only baby!
  • He has knocked in 30 home runs and has been an absolute diamond this whole season.
  • Considering how terrible and unplayable Jesse Winker has been, the rebirth of Suarez has saved Seattle from a disappointing season.

• Magic number
  • As the Mariners take on the Padres for a two-game series, they enter the Eddie Vedder Cup with a magic number of 16.
  • It’s getting really real Mariner fans.

• This week’s Mariners Music Mojo is Where We’re Going from James and the Shame
• Go M’s!