Don’t blame Emerson Hancock. After a four-hour rain delay, he put together a relatively decent outing, holding his extra velocity for most of the five innings he tossed today. Some extra run on his sinker also helped put the K in Kody Clemens in the third, and a biting change up got Trevor Larnach. Unfortunately, he lost it in the fifth. He reached back for some extra gas against Byron Buxton, and indeed managed to throw the fastest pitch of his career. But it came nowhere near the plate and another uncompetitive pitch later, he’d walked Buxton. Then he threw the ball away on a pickoff attempt, allowing Buxton to reach second base. For much of his pro career, Hancock has had a problem with the blow up inning, where he’d let a couple bad things spiral. But part of what’s led to his success this year is that he’s been so good at maintaining his composure, so it was disappointing to see him react today with his old agitation. He followed up his throwing error by leaving one over the plate for Trevor Larnach to make it 2-0 on one swing, and then hit the next batter and got away with a 400-foot fly ball only because it was hit to the deepest part of the park. But an injury delay after Mitch Garver took a foul ball off the chin allowed Hancock to reset, and he got out of the inning. Zach Pop came on in relief in the sixth, and put the game out of reach with an eight spot. I promise you don’t care about the details.
That injury to Garver may end up being the biggest story of the game, as he was forced to leave the game with the trainer. And Number 6 prospect Harry Ford was a late scratch from Tacoma’s lineup. The problem with calling up Ford has been that if you move on from Mitch Garver and Ford doesn’t work out, there’s no depth behind them. A Garver injury would solve that problem by forcing your hand. But you’d feel better about hoping for that outcome if the injury were a strained hammy rather than something as dangerous as a ball off the jaw.
Garver and the rest of the offense nearly got shut out for a second day in a row but for an error (scored a hit, but I saw what I saw) when the Mariners were down to their last out. So this game is as close as I’ve come to just not giving out a Sun Hat Award. Hancock was fine, but I’m mad about the blowup inning. Ben Williamson had a couple nice plays, but he biffed a ball in the disaster sixth inning. I toyed with just giving the Sun Hat to Luke Raley for staying on the bench and not contributing to this clusterjam. But Randy Arozarena golfed a splitter that broke so much it was practically touching the plate, and it was a notable feat of strength. I won’t hold it against him that muscling that ball deep to left field would turn out to be pointless.