3 Up, 3 Down: Best and Not-as-Good Performances From Mariners' 10-0 Shutout of Orioles
Heading into this past weekend, the Mariners were 0-6 in games resulting in a shutout. Now, they have two shutout victories in their last three games, routing the Orioles by a score of 10-0 on Tuesday night in Baltimore.
After playing five times in four days down in Boston, the Orioles recalled left-handed pitcher Zac Lowther from Triple-A Norfolk to piggyback opener Bryan Baker. It did not take long for that plan to backfire as the Mariners jumped on Baker early, running him out of the game after 1.1 innings pitched with three earned runs to his credit. Lowther suffered a similar fate but was forced to endure 5.1 innings and 100 pitches of punishment from Seattle's offense, which tallied an additional six runs off the southpaw on eight hits.
The Mariners were tearing the cover off the baseball all night long, registering 17 hard-hit balls with 11 of them exceeding an exit velocity of 100 miles per hour. All but one of their starting nine hitters recorded a hit, bringing the team's grand total to 13 with six of those going for extra bases. Interestingly, despite the abundance of hard contact, none of those went over the fence.
On top of that, the pitching was as good as manager Scott Servais could have possibly asked for. Baltimore scraped together five hits and a walk but struck out 12 times and failed to move a runner past second base.
It was a complete, utter dismantling by the Mariners, giving them their third win of five or more runs in four games. Let's go over the three best and not-as-good performances from the blowout victory.
3 Up
RHP George Kirby
Kirby battled some uncharacteristically shaky command in the first inning, but he managed to work through it without any damage being done to the scoreboard and settled in the rest of the way. Going six innings of scoreless ball, the Elon product induced 11 swings and misses—seven with his fastball, four with his slider—and racked up eight strikeouts for his first career win at the major league level.
C Cal Raleigh
It was a big night for the bottom of the Mariners' order, including the No. 9 hitter Raleigh. He kicked things off with a sacrifice fly to give Seattle its third run of the game, then ripped a two-run single past the diving glove of Baltimore third baseman Ramón Urías his next turn through the lineup. Putting the ball in play on all five of his plate appearances, the switch-hitting catcher registered four hard-hit balls with two going over 100 miles per hour.
OF Taylor Trammell
Trammell arguably had his best night in the big leagues on Tuesday, going 3 for 4 with a pair of doubles and four RBI while making some history along the way. His third RBI of the night—a bloop single into short left field in the top of the seventh—marked the 30,000th in Mariners history and extended Seattle's lead to 9-0. With the big night, his batting average is now up to .353 in 22 plate appearances.
Taylor Trammell’s RBI single in the top of the 7th inning was the 30,000 RBI in #Mariners franchise history. pic.twitter.com/GWwvI8ixkx
— Kelly Munro (@kmunro1) June 1, 2022
3 Down
3B Eugenio Suárez
Suárez had gone 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout before rocketing a double into right-center in the top of the ninth. Of course, that came with a position player, infielder Chris Owings, on the mound, so there was very little to glean from Suárez's night.
SS J.P. Crawford
Crawford's hot stretch cooled off a bit on Tuesday night, despite the offensive explosion from Seattle. He went 0 for 4 with one of the team's strikeouts, though he did post an exit velocity of 103.3 miles per hour on a sixth inning groundout.
OF Julio Rodríguez
Rodríguez jumpstarted the Mariners' scoring efforts with an RBI double in the first inning, which would have been a home run at Oriole Park just a year ago. However, shortly thereafter, he committed a mental error by getting picked off at second base. He went 0 for 4 with a strikeout the rest of the way and had his night ended prematurely by home plate umpire Lance Barrett, who handed the 21-year old his first career ejection after he drew a line in the dirt arguing balls and strikes. Rodríguez certainly kept things entertaining, because that's just what he does, but it was one of his more forgettable efforts overall.
