Ambushes, blasts and chaos: Mariners' bats overwhelm Yankees

NEW YORK -- It had a first-inning onslaught that they sorely needed. It had their trademark brand of Chaos Ball that’s been mostly absent in 2023. It had the more disciplined at-bats that they’ve been regularly talking about but had struggled to consistently execute. Oh, and it had a no-hitter into the sixth inning from rookie Bryan Woo.

Thursday night’s showing from the Mariners was arguably their best of the year, a 10-2 victory at Yankee Stadium that prevented a sweep -- and it came at a time where the trajectory of their season was reaching the point of problematic.

“We kind of boxed them in,” catcher Cal Raleigh said. “We didn't chase them around. We battled with two strikes. We saw a few two-strike hits today, and I thought we did a better job of getting guys in when we needed to.”

Less than 24 hours after a manager Scott Servais spoke tersely after another frustrating defeat, preaching the importance of sustaining an approach of “compete and fight from the first inning on,” Seattle ambushed Yanks starter Domingo Germán for a season-high-tying four runs in the first inning.

And that was before they crushed four homers for just the third time in a game this year.

Kolten Wong sparked the power barrage with his first deep fly in a Seattle uniform to lead off the second inning, after which he emphatically grabbed the celebratory trident and held onto it until returning to the field in the bottom of the frame.

Ty France also crushed a Statcast-projected 430-foot blast, by far his longest of the season and first on the road, then Teoscar Hernández (437 feet) and Raleigh (349 feet) went back to back in the fourth. It marked the Mariners’ first consecutive homers since May 23, nearly a full month.

In between, Chaos Ball took center stage when Eugenio Suárez scored all the way from first base on an infield dribbler after two errors by the Yanks. Third baseman Josh Donaldson bobbled the routine grounder from Mike Ford, while Germán failed to catch Donaldson's throw as he attempted to cover third, allowing Suárez to never break a stride in scoring.

“We came out very focused and ready to compete right from the first pitch tonight. ... We did not wait to get into the game,” Servais said. “We got on the attack mode early on and it certainly paid off.”

Even Seattle’s outs were productive on Thursday, with deep sacrifice flies from Ford and José Caballero. And Ford was only in position to score after moving to third following a crew chief review on the chaos play where Suárez scored. Servais argued that, because Ford was already en route to second base when Donaldson’s throw went into the visiting dugout, Ford should be awarded third base.

“We just kind of came in with a different attitude today,” Wong said. “Guys were aggressive, guys were excited to go out there and compete. And that was the kind of game that we really needed to kind of jumpstart us back to the winning ways.”

Some other notable nuggets from Thursday:

• Getaway day has been a challenge this year, as the club entered play 9-14 in series finales.

• Their multiple runs in each of the first four innings represented the first time they’d done so since Sept. 9, 2007, at Detroit.

• There was credence in Servais pointing to the first inning being critical, as it hasn’t been nearly as productive this season:

Mariners in 1st inning, 2023 vs. 2022
BA: .234 (25th) | .260 (9th)
OBP: .311 (22nd) | .344 (4th)
SLG: .407 (22nd) | .461 (4th)
OPS: .718 (23rd) | .805 (4th)

“We needed it,” Servais said. “We hadn't done anything here offensively for a few days, so it's nice to get into a lot of guys chipping in and contributing. Nice win, nice bounce back after a rough night last night.”

It’d be imprudent to say the Mariners have completely resolved their offensive inconsistencies, especially with Thursday’s win on the heels of two stinging losses with their two best starters on the mound, George Kirby and Luis Castillo.

But they’ve desperately been looking for a pivot point in this up-and-down season. To that end, they can still salvage a .500 road trip -- and do direct damage to a team ahead of them in the AL Wild Card race -- by winning this weekend’s series in Baltimore.