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Mariners vs. Rays: Raleigh rocks, Kirby continues his scorching month, Garver goes long twice

Other than a blown 11-3 loss on Tuesday, Seattle kept it competitive and were able to avoid a sweep with a win in the finale against the Rays

By Jason Wang |
Seattle Mariners v Tampa Bay Rays
Seattle Mariners v Tampa Bay Rays / Douglas P. DeFelice/GettyImages
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It was an ugly road trip but it's over now. The Mariners lost three series in a row against the Guardians, Marlins, and Rays but were able to end strong with a 5-2 win over Tampa Bay. With the Astros on a hot streak of their own, winning seven straight, to draw within 4.5 games of Seattle, the Mariners will have to hope their success at home continues if they want to maintain their lead.

Best Hitter: Cal Raleigh

12 PA, .375/.583/1.125, 3 H, 2 HR, 2R, 4 RBI, 4 BB, 1 K, 1 SB

Cal was cooking in St. Petersburg, posting a ridiculous 1.708 OPS over his 12 plate appearances. He tied Mitch Garver in total bases with nine but his four walks and just one strikeout set him apart. Combined with his excellent plate discipline in these three games was his signature power, culminating in a 423-foot home run on Monday and a 422-foot home run on Wednesday.

Cal has been torching baseballs this year and his average exit velocity of 92.2 mph is the highest it has ever been in his career. His slugging numbers and counting stats have been dragged down by his poor strikeout rate but he showed his ability to be the best of both worlds in this series. Crucially, he leads the Mariners in RBI and his performance against the Rays lifted his season total to 49, 18 more than second-place Mitch Garver.

Honorable Mention: J.P. Crawford

13 PA, .444/.615/.667, 4 H, 2 2B, 2 RBI, 4 BB, 2 K, 1 SB

Crawford continued his slow but steady upward trend, bringing his June OPS to .729 over 107 plate appearances. He's still the patient, disciplined hitter fans have come to know and love and did a little bit of everything this week, hitting for average, hitting with runners in scoring position, and even stealing a base. He hasn't yet returned to the heights we saw in 2023 but there's still plenty of season left.

Best Pitcher: George Kirby

6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K

Kirby is having his best month of 2024 by far. Over the course of four starts, he pitched 25 innings to an ERA of 1.80 and a 0.88 WHIP. He struck out 26.5% of opposing batters while walking them just 2.6% of the time, numbers we have come to expect from him. His start in the final game of the series saw him collect 13 whiffs and 11 called strikes. Six of his whiffs were on his four-seam fastball and six of his called strikes were on his sinker. Although this clip was from the previous series against the Marlins, the video beautifully illustrates why his tunneling makes both pitches lethal.

Once you add his splitter, a pitch with a batting average against of .100, you get one of the best pitching talents in the American League.

Honorable Mention: Trent Thornton

2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K

One of the more underrated arms in the Seattle bullpen, Thornton is a reliable pitcher who's currently second in ERA among qualified relievers behind only Andrés Muñoz. His current mark of 3.31 could be even lower as his xERA of 3.13 and his FIP of 2.87 potentially indicate, but all in all, he's gotten it done when asked of him.

Best Moment: Mitch Garver homers in back-to-back games

A recurring for Seattle's lineup is that they are (allegedly) still getting warm. A perfect example of that has been Mitch Garver. After a .553 OPS in March/April and a .617 OPS in May, his .837 OPS in June is more what we expected after his free agent signing. He's been staying hot game after game and has hopefully made the necessary adjustments to keep it up for the rest of the year.

An interesting tidbit about his approach is that his whiff rate (31.3%) and strikeout rate (30.0%) are both in the bottom 12% of qualified hitters but his chase rate (18.9%) and walk rate (13.7%) are in the top 5%. It seems like the problem is that he's getting beaten in the strike zone. When he makes contact in the strike zone, we get the long balls that were advertised.

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