SEATTLE -- Logan Gilbert returned to the Mariners’ rotation on Monday night in emphatic fashion, matching his season high with 10 strikeouts against the 19 batters he faced over five innings in Seattle’s 2-0 loss to the Red Sox.
Gilbert reached 84 pitches, right around the threshold that the club intended for the towering right-hander, but left with the Mariners trailing in an eventual shutout, their fourth this season.
Gilbert surrendered a solo homer to MLB Pipeline’s No. 1 overall prospect Roman Anthony in the first inning, then allowed an RBI single to former teammate Abraham Toro in the third that scored Jarred Duran, who ripped a two-out triple into the right-field corner in the at-bat prior.
But other than that, Gilbert was outstanding. The only other baserunner he allowed was via a fourth-inning walk to Trevor Story.
“You always get nervous before games, and that's a good thing,” Gilbert said. “But I was just really grateful just to play and be out there and do something I love and do it for a job. Like, there's a lot more than just going out there, middle-of-the-season baseball game. It felt like a bigger deal than that for me.”
Gilbert had been sidelined since exiting his April 25 start vs. the Marlins with a right elbow flexor strain that necessitated him making three rehab starts at Triple-A Tacoma before making his much-anticipated return.
As was regularly the case throughout his All-Star season in 2024, a lack of run support ended up plaguing him, as Seattle was blanked after squandering a bases-loaded, no-outs opportunity in the third inning and a two-on, no-outs situation in the eighth.
Gilbert received the lowest run support average among qualified starters last season (3.53 runs per nine innings).
Gilbert punched out each Boston hitter other than Toro and generated whiffs on 21 of the 48 swings from the Red Sox, one shy of the Mariners’ season high -- also achieved by Gilbert, on April 1 vs. the Tigers, when he also punched out 10.
For the season, Gilbert now has a 39.7% K rate that represents a massive uptick from his career-best 27.4% clip in 2024, when he was a first-time All-Star. Though the sample size is smaller given that he was sidelined a little over seven weeks, Gilbert is reaching another gear in two-strike counts this season.
“I think I keep it really simple, and a big thing for me is knowing who's aggressive and who's not, and knowing where my targets are,” Gilbert said. “And that's like all I do on the mound. That's what I commit to every time. So, my splitter, my slider -- depending on the count -- I have basically two targets, and we always talk about being really stubborn to where we want to go.
The most prime example might’ve been his mid-game adjustment vs. Anthony, after he was bested on the homer on a high-and-away two-seam fastball in a 2-2 count but came back for a K on a 1-2 slider that nicked the inner black in his second go-round, a call coming from catcher Cal Raleigh.
“The goal is to get to two strikes as quickly as you can, get as many batters as you can to two strikes and then go to work from there,” Gilbert said. “So to get strikeouts is just getting as many guys as you can in two-strike counts. ... And a lot of creativity from Cal. I feel like he reads batters really well, knows when to go splitter, when to go opposite directions, all that kind of stuff.”
Gilbert also now has a 2.55 ERA in seven outings and has held hitters to a slash line of .164/.213/.313 (.526 OPS) in 136 plate appearances.
Gilbert also carried his velocity throughout Monday’s outing, with only an expectedly slight dip as the game went on. His four-seam fastball velocity averaged 95.4 mph (compared to his 95.5 mph season average) and topped out at 97.8 mph. He also mixed in his splitter -- the pitch that he mentioned he’ll be more deliberate with, given the potential strain it’s been correlated to have on the elbow -- 14 times for seven whiffs.
“You just hear people talk about it, that it makes you feel like you should be concerned.” Gilbert said. “But really, everything feels good. That pitch feels the same as every other pitch, and it's effective.”