SEATTLE -- The epic Final Four matchup that saw Ty France’s San Diego State Aztecs win at the buzzer was plastered across the Mariners’ videoboard as the first 20,000 fans surged into the stands on Julio Rodríguez’s bobblehead debut.
And perhaps fittingly, given the coincidence of timing, T-Mobile Park’s atmosphere a few hours later on Saturday felt like an epic college basketball game. The Mariners fell to the Guardians, 2-0, but in the game’s most climactic moments, the crowd completely took over in a way that was unprecedented, at least for this sport.
For the second time this series, Cleveland reliever James Karinchak was goaded by Seattle’s packed house, which loudly counted down the pitch timer in each at-bat during the eighth inning. As the echos grew, Karinchak surrendered a double to Tommy La Stella and a four-pitch walk to J.P. Crawford, sending Rodríguez to the plate as the winning run.
But unlike Thursday, when France crushed a three-run, game-winning homer, Karinchak got the last laugh, striking out Rodríguez with two on to halt the rally, then the Mariners went quietly in the ninth.
“Obviously we got to Karinchak the other night,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said, “and I thought we had a chance. ... He's tough. He's got a lot of ride to the fastball. It's up to 95-96 [mph] and a big overhand curveball. We had our guys up there. He executed. He beat us. That happens in this game.”
These scenes have been surreal in the sense that before Thursday, they didn’t exist in this sport. They’ve underscored how huge home-field advantage could become with MLB’s new rules for 2023, despite the Mariners not being able to break through this time around.
“It's never happened in baseball before. ... It was very much like the false start that they'll get over at the NFL games,” Servais said Friday. “It gets so loud, the other team, they can't hear the snap counting like that. It's about as close as you can get to it in baseball.”
Despite going quietly, much of Seattle’s shortcomings could also be credited to how the game had manifested earlier.
Before Karinchak, the Mariners struggled to get anything going against Cleveland starter Aaron Civale, who cruised through seven innings and allowed just two hits, both singles to Rodríguez. The first one, in the first inning, prompted Rodríguez to immediately steal second base, but that represented Seattle’s lone runner to reach scoring position against Civale, who generated just five whiffs and three strikeouts but masterfully spun his cutter and curveball combo to keep the Mariners off balance.
“He was pretty dominant tonight,” France said. “He had everything working, and it makes it a lot harder, especially when you have a plan going up there just based off how he's pitched you in the past, and he completely did the opposite.”
Civale now has four career two-hit games of more than one inning, and two have been against the Mariners. He’s known for his diverse repertoire, and he threw five different pitches on Saturday. The Mariners also failed to score off Shane Bieber on Opening Day.
Seattle’s lack of offense put the Mariners’ pitching staff on a tightrope, which made the solo homers surrendered by Logan Gilbert and Diego Castillo loom larger. The irony was that Cleveland entered the night homerless in 70 at-bats, by far MLB’s longest drought in this young season, and that they beat the Mariners with small ball on Friday.
Gilbert’s outing was encouraging, especially after he punctuated the start by returning for the sixth. Aside from his lone run on the homer, to Josh Naylor in the fourth, he surrendered only three other hits and struck out seven with one walk. He also dropped in his new-look splitter during the final frame, a by-design effort to ease into the season with the pitch.
“I felt like I had a high workload with the splitter in Spring Training,” Gilbert said. “And I'm trying to be cognizant of that, and not wary, but back off in between starts and stuff like that. And then wanted to make sure I felt fine today and did, and then when we eventually went to it, it worked pretty well tonight.”
Saturday’s shutout added some sting to losing Robbie Ray to the 15-day IL earlier in the afternoon, but they’ve played Cleveland close dating back to last August and will look to split the series on Sunday.