Tonight’s game was, like all inter league play, one of the most meaningless games of the season for the Seattle Mariners. While Viktor Frankl might be bemused, the San Diego Padres would get the smallest possible amount closer to an NL West title with a win over Seattle tonight, while the M’s gain the most minute advantage against the Houston Astros with tonight’s 9-6 victory.
But we are meaning’s master, not the other way around. One set of circumstances creates a consequence, it cannot force us to see that consequence singularly. A rock in our pocket becomes lucky when it accompanies us through successes, and grounds us through failures. A song or story may be particularly poignant, or might simply hit us at the right moment, creating a gravitational pull that orbits major moments in our lives. I watched Dylan Moore catch the ball a half-dozen times today – you know the one – and wept through it all. An eliminated team in a losing game, salvaging a 5.06 ERA in a start for a pitcher who had a 6.40 earnie on the year. Maybe meaning rules us after all.
No waterworks unfurled on behalf of the Vedder Cup, at least not in my home. And yet, I appreciate the effort that’s gone into this silly exercise. A rivalry is only as good as those who care about it, and a physical manifestation of the competition is a good way to root that sensation. An even better sensation came in the bottom of the first inning, when Cal Raleigh worked a 3-2 count in a lengthy at-bat against Poor JP Sears, who must’ve thought getting traded away from the Athletics meant escaping the Mariners before they fully put together a game against him, tried to sneak a fastball under his hands. The switch-hitting impending MVP obliged a hungry crowd’s yearning for history.
50 home runs through 132 games. A pace of 61, for the curious, from the first backstop ever to clear half a century’s worth of homers. 50. It’s often half of something, halfway there, half-completed, half-full, half-empty, half-hearted, half-awake, half-asleep, halfway there, halfway home. Some among us find round numbers and societal obsessions with them distasteful, noting accurately that there’s nothing inherently marvelous in a Base 10 system, and yet I relish the benchmarks. Meaning in a checkpoint, a quicksave, a bookmark placed for later that ensures at least we made it this far.
On some nights, it would’ve been enough. The tearful catch by the erstwhile longest-tenured Mariner, a rookie’s heroic effort to salvage the pride of the King who once occupied the same status he spent this year carrying until his designation for assignment. On some nights, a milestone for a player who chose to stick around would’ve been enough. Raleigh’s adjustments, all year long, have given the M’s the chance to make more instead.
“[How pitchers attack me is] constantly changing. It kind of happens anyway, a team has success against you so obviously scouts and video and data is collected and other teams start trying to do the same thing, and they’ll have success until you make that adjustment. So it’s how it always is. They’re going to keep going to those spots until you can hit those pitches. So it’s been a constant thing. Guys have gone up, down, maybe a little more off-speed there for a while, and then maybe a stretch where things were a little more in. It’s different for every team.”
In the genre of adjustments, Bryce Miller looked destined for an early hook. The lean Texan lamented a brutal second inning where three Padres sluggers took him deep, putting Seattle in a 4-1 hole. However, shifting to a splitter-heavy approach put Miller back in clean living, and he yielded no other runs beyond that frame in his five innings. The splitter, much as it has been for Logan Gilbert and George Kirby this season, is a fickle weapon. Miller was not as confident in the offering all season as he was Monday night, but the takeaways were positive, as is seemingly his health.
I don’t know how many times last year I was confident enough to go behind-count splitters and get back into counts with it. I had a couple at bats where I threw all splitters. I like where it’s at. And I think that new-ish slider I’ve been throwing has been performing well. I think I got four out of five swing and miss with it. So there’s definitely positives. I just look at the line and it’s frustrating … I think we’re really close. Both the last two starts I’ve had one long inning that’s not allowed me to get into the sixth, and today–what’d I have, 80 pitches, 81?–I was ready to go for the sixth. But we scored too many runs. [heh heh] I’ll take that.”
Yes, for the second straight night, the bullpen came on earlier than might’ve been needed for a starter, thanks to an offensive eruption that lopsided the score. Jorge Polanco, the most impactful player of the evening, finally sees his name enter the story. Like Cal, Polo’s switch-hitting allows him to stymie southpaws, and like Cal, Polo is hitting way better than he did a season ago. The 31 year old blistered a two-run shot into Edgar’s Cantina, part of a four RBI night that would later see him double with the bases loaded for what were ultimately the needed runs to secure an M’s win.
Essentially back to his 2022-23 self, Polo’s rejuvenation is a massive stabilizer for Seattle’s lineup, which now lengthens into a force even the brilliant San Diego bullpen could not contain. Facing mostly the second or third line of the ‘Dres relievers, the M’s delivered rookie David Morgan with a vicious introduction. Loading the bases in both the fourth and fifth innings and running Sears before the conclusion of the former, Seattle retook the lead in the latter and never relinquished it. A Josh Naylor opposite field line drive singled home Julio Rodriguez, then Polanco punched across another two with his double, and J.P. Crawford found redemption for a fourth frame double play by recreating his famous RBI blooper from the Wild Card winner in Toronto.
The 9-4 lead contracted to 9-6 on a solo shot and an unearned run, but once Matt Brash cleared the ledger in the 8th with a bases-loaded flirtation of his own, the Vedder Cup was clinched in four games. It might not mean everything, but it felt real good to me.