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Mariners vs. Rangers: Rojas keeps rolling, Gilbert fans nine, and chaos ball reigns

The Mariners extended their lead over the AL West with a clean sweep of the defending World Series champion Rangers

By Jason Wang |
Texas Rangers v Seattle Mariners
Texas Rangers v Seattle Mariners / Alika Jenner/GettyImages
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The Mariners have excelled against divisional opponents so far this year. Their 17-5 against fellow AL West teams which has allowed them to pull ahead to their currently dominant 8.5 game lead over the second-place Rangers. Heading into this weekend's series, there was an opportunity for Texas to close the gap but Seattle quickly closed the door on that possibility.

Things were just clicking. The starters, the bullpen, and the lineup all took care of business to outscore the Rangers 15-7 including a 5-0 shutout in the third and final game of the series. With this most recent performance, they've officially thrown their hat in the ring of serious postseason contenders.

Best Hitter: Josh Rojas

10 PA, .375/.500/.875, 3 H, 1 2B, 1 HR, 4 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K

Josh Rojas has continued to be an integral piece of this well-rounded squad. After officially winning the battle for the third base role and watching Luis Urias get optioned to Triple-A, his hitting cooled off. His May OPS of .608 and June OPS of .655 have been significantly worse than the .938 OPS he posted in March/April. However, he's still had his hot moments. On Saturday night, he hit a 395-foot bomb against Jonathan Hernández to give Seattle a 5-1 lead.

With a team-leading 114 OPS+ (tied with Ty France), his excellent defense has given him 1.6 rWAR, the second-highest on the team behind just Logan Gilbert. He's currently got the highest OAA of any third basemen at six and has five DRS. After trading Eugenio Suárez, there were concerns that his successor would have inferior defense and so far, Rojas has shown that he's just as good if not better.

Honorable Mention: Julio Rodríguez

13 PA, .273/.385/.545, 3 H, 1 HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K

Julio might finally be thawing out. After going from a .606 OPS in March/April to a .688 OPS in May, he's sitting at a .816 OPS over 64 plate appearances so far in June. He cut down on the strikeouts in this series which is hopefully the start of an upward trend. His poor swing decisions and plate discipline have cut into his offensive output but when he makes contact, he's been great. Before Rojas hit his home run, Julio hit a two-run homer of his own against Nathan Eovaldi, a 412-foot moonshot.

Julio's still in the top 10% of hitters for average exit velocity, bat speed, and hard-hit rate so expect more of those long balls to come throughout the summer.

Best Pitcher: Logan Gilbert

8.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K

Gilbert put up an absolute gem to close out the series, pitching eight shutout innings and allowing just two baserunners with no free passes. He had 21 swings and misses, eight of which were on his splitter and eight of which were on his slider. Everything was just working and he was nigh untouchable.

It was his best start of the year by game score, notching a mark of 87. The second-best game of the year was a similar start, going eight scoreless innings against the Astros on May 4th, but he had four more walks and three fewer strikeouts. It is tied with the 12-strikeout game he had against the Padres on August 8th of last year for the highest game score of his career.

Honorable Mention: George Kirby

6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K

Kirby had a quality start of his own although it was slightly overshadowed by Gilbert's dominant performance. Nonetheless, he had 16 swings and misses, nine of which were on his four-seam fastball.

Kirby has finally shrugged off the few rough starts that he had earlier in the year and is now sitting at a 3.54 ERA and 1.01 WHIP. His 2.98 FIP that he has so far is the best that he's had in the career so far, helped by his 0.9 BB/9 combined with his 8.8 SO/9. What's been the difference so far recently? The high four-seam fastball.

Best Moment: Josh Rojas scores on a wild pitch...from second base

Wild pitches happen. With pitchers throwing harder and with more movement than ever, it's not uncommon for them to lose control and allow baserunners to move up 90 feet. What's less common is when they allow runners to move 180 feet and what's even less common is when the 180th foot takes those runners to home plate.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, after hitting a double with two outs on the board, Josh Rojas was already in scoring position. On his first pitch to Julio, Dunning tossed a sinker way off the plate, comfortably in the left-handed batter's box, and past Rangers catcher Andrew Knizner. Rojas advanced to third as per usual but following a couple of weird bounces, Rojas rounded third and came all the way home. It gave Seattle a 2-0 lead that they would ride into the ninth inning.

While not monumentally important in and of itself, I find this play representative of how the Mariners' season has gone so far. There haven't been any statistical standouts on this team that are putting up Aaron Judge numbers at the plate or Emmanuel Clase numbers on the mound. Instead, the squad is well-rounded, scrappy, and willing to do whatever it takes to win. It hasn't been a perfect season by any means but Seattle seems to do best when embracing the chaos.

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