'Phenomenal' Flexen leads Seattle to win

ANAHEIM -- If Chris Flexen keeps flexin’, maybe the Mariners’ rotation depth leading up to the July 30 Trade Deadline won’t be as taxed as it has initially seemed in the wake of Héctor Santiago’s 10-game suspension and Justus Sheffield’s forearm and oblique strains.

Flexen carved up the Angels for his second straight start and Mitch Haniger backed him by finishing a triple shy of the cycle, as Seattle surged to a 6-5 win to open the second half of the regular season in front of a season-high 40,880 at Angel Stadium on Friday.

The Halos made things interesting by tagging Kendall Graveman for three runs in the ninth, then Paul Sewald gave up a single to his first batter, All-Star Jared Walsh, before inducing a lineout in the right-center-field gap that Haniger covered 70 feet in 4.6 seconds, per Statcast, to track down.

The late scare was more of a byproduct of a few defensive miscues and tough luck, including a wide throw to second base by Dylan Moore on a would-be game-ending play, then a high chopper that caromed off Kyle Seager’s glove and into left field to score a run. And though the Mariners advanced to six games above .500 (49-43), they had to burn one extra reliever than they would’ve wanted.

“We're going to lean on our starters -- those guys, it's so important they give us a chance every night,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Flex set the tone early tonight. … I think as you look, as we get deep into the second half, is how consistent teams' starting pitching will be. Pitching and defense wins. We’ve won a lot of close games this year because of that, and I think we're going to continue to do as well.”

The Mariners are now six games in the green in huge part because of, well, Flexen. They’ve now won 13 of his 17 outings and are 36-39 behind the rest of their starters. Only six other starters have led their team to that many wins when they are on the hill: Zack Greinke, Anthony DeSclafani, Julio Urías, Chris Bassitt, Taijuan Walker and Yu Darvish -- the latter three 2021 All-Stars.

“Every time I take the ball, I go out there trying to win a ballgame and go as deep as I can in the game and put us in a position to win,” Flexen said. “I’ve had my struggles on the road, and it’s just about trying to figure out how to get it done, and tonight I was able to do that.”

Flexen gave up a solo homer to Max Stassi in the second inning, then locked himself in the rest of the way. And he did so while confidently putting his defense to work behind him. Flexen threw 79 pitches, generated 40 swings and just three whiffs -- his fewest in any of his 17 outings this season. Two of those went for strikeouts, including a gnarly changeup that had Shohei Ohtani swinging out of his shoes.

Ohtani, MLB’s home run leader with 33, went 0-for-3 against Flexen on Friday and is now 1-for-7 against him this season.

The statistical accolades go on and on, but it’ll be curious to see how Flexen adjusts to MLB adjusting to him. He has a solid four-pitch mix but is a weak-contact-driven pitcher who throws his most hittable pitches early in counts.

“That’s something I'm still learning,” Flexen said. “I faced these guys a week ago. I went in with the same gameplan with making adjustments as needed and just trying to execute a gameplan, and I continue to try to stick to a gameplan that's been successful lately and we make our adjustments as we go.”

Flexen’s 19 first-pitch strikes to the 27 batters he faced and his lack of hard contact proved to be the perfect recipe in allowing him to pitch deep once again. He’s now gone at least six innings 11 times, a mark that only 25 pitchers had reached entering play Friday.

Flexen’s 58 2/3 innings since May 27 -- which followed his 1 2/3-inning, season-changing outing in San Diego -- are the third-most in baseball, trailing only Colorado’s Germán Márquez and Toronto’s Robbie Ray, who each have 60 in the same stretch. Flexen has a 2.15 ERA in this nine-start run, and he hasn’t had a losing decision since June 2.

“He was just throwing right at guys,” Haniger said. “He did a phenomenal job tonight. I looked in like the fifth and I think he had like 34 pitches or something crazy like that. So, just pounding the zone, going right at guys. He’s not scared. It’s been really fun to play behind him.”