Detroit Tigers Win Series Against Seattle Mariners With Walk-Off Double in Extras
The Seattle Mariners lost 15-1 on Tuesday and somehow Wednesday's game felt worse.
The Detroit Tigers beat the Seattle 3-2 on Wednesday in extra innings off a walk-off double from pinch hitter Akil Baddoo. The loss dropped the Mariners to 63-58 on the season and kept them trailing the Houston Astros in the American League West standings by 2.5 games.
"Offensively we had a chance to break it open there in the eighth and couldn't add on," Seattle manager Scott Servais said in a postgame interview Wednesday. "And on the road those are huge opportunities that we missed there. ... It's not going to be easy. This one hurts. Think you got the game in hand, you got our high leverage guys ready to go. We made a mistake to their hottest hitter and they got back into it and it cost us the game."
Even with it being such a low-scoring game — it felt like Seattle had control of the game for most of it.
The Mariners got on the board after an RBI single from Jorge Polanco in the top of the fifth. That was only bit of run support that starting pitcher Bryan Woo received.
Polo gets it done! #TridentsUp pic.twitter.com/UgH5p0rR2j
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 14, 2024
Woo went seven innings — tying a career high for his longest outing — and struck out six batters. He allowed four hits and didn't let up a free base. It was his third straight start of more than six innings pitched.
"It's nice," Woo said in a postgame interview Wednesday. "But (it's) kind of just staying in the groove of what we're doing throughout the week. And what we're doing in the training room and the weight room and all that stuff. It's been great. But always got to finish. Doesn't mean anything if we don't finish with a win."
That one run of support was enough to keep Woo from absorbing the loss. In the top of the eighth — Seattle added another run courtesy of an RBI single from Julio Rodriguez to go up 2-0.
.@JRODshow44 brings home Vic! #TridentsUp pic.twitter.com/CyOca9RFfn
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 15, 2024
But that inning was not a good one in the grand scheme of things for the Mariners.
They left the bases loaded and Rodriguez was in noticeable pain before and after his hit and he had to exit the game.
Seattle looked to have dodged a bullet with Rodriguez's exit. According to a report on Twitter from MLB.com's Daniel Kramer, Rodriguez's exit was related to scar tissue in his right ankle and he and the team doesn't think it's serious. Rodriguez simply said he was "all good" after the game.
Julio Rodríguez’s early departure was indeed related to right ankle, Scott Servais just said, specifically due to scar tissue in the area. But he and the Mariners don’t think it’s serious.
— Daniel Kramer (@DKramer_) August 15, 2024
“All good,” Rodríguez just said in passing, preferring not to speak further.
It was a remarkable show of grit from the Mariners' franchise star. But it ultimately was for nothing.
Detroit designated hitter Kerry Carpenter tied the game up with a two-run home run to right field in the bottom of the eighth. It was Carpenter's third homer in two days against Seattle.
Both teams managed to keep the game knotted up at 2-2 through the ninth.
The Mariners went down in order in the top of the 10th and Baddoo came up with a runner on first and second and one out in the bottom of the inning to set up his eventual walk-off double.
Baddoo was batting .130 going into Wednesday's game.
Seattle has lost its second series against the Tigers in a week and are multiple games behind in the AL West.
The best thing the Mariners can do is exactly what they did the last time they played Detroit — close out the series on a good note. And maybe they can go into a tough series against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Paul Skenes with some momentum on their side.
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