SEATTLE -- On a day Mariners welcomed their latest first-round Draft pick, it was two homegrown franchise fixtures who helped Seattle snap out of a brief two-game skid in Tuesday night’s 1-0 win at T-Mobile Park.
Logan Gilbert pitched into the seventh inning for the first time since Opening Day, surrendering just one hit while racking up 10 strikeouts in what could be a season-propelling start for the staff ace, while Cal Raleigh gave his good friend and batterymate just enough run support with his 39th homer in the sixth inning that put him into territory that only Ken Griffey Jr. has reached.
With it, the Mariners sent Kade Anderson -- their first-round pick in last weekend’s Draft at No. 3 overall -- off to the first stage of his pro career on a winning note, after the former LSU left-hander was formally introduced by the club earlier on Tuesday afternoon.
“It had its share of drama for sure, but just a great job all around,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said, shortly after Andrés Muñoz worked around a one-out jam with two runners on to lock down his 22nd save.
Seattle (54-47) also silenced red-hot Milwaukee (60-41) by snapping its win streak at 11 games, one day after it claimed sole possession of MLB’s best record. The Mariners were also able to overcome seven strikeouts in their first 14 batters against Brewers rookie sensation Jacob Misiorowski, who was pulled after just 64 pitches and with two outs in the fourth inning in a workload-management decision.
Gilbert might’ve been the Mariners’ MVP of the night, but it was Raleigh who had the biggest moment, pulling a 96.1 mph fastball from reliever Nick Mears way out for a 391-foot solo blast with two outs and in a 2-2 count in the sixth. In doing so, Raleigh tied Griffey with the most homers in a player's first five seasons in franchise history, with 132.
“You kind of got the sense that he wanted to be that guy in the big moment tonight,” Wilson said. “And he delivered.”
Last week, Raleigh became the first -- and only -- Mariners slugger to win the Home Run Derby other than Griffey, and Tuesday marked the first time that the backstop cleared the fence since that epic exhibition in Atlanta. He last homered in a game on July 11 in Detroit, with Tuesday snapping a six-game drought.
Leading into All-Star Week, Raleigh also passed Griffey for the most homers before the break, and if he remains on this historic pace, he could pass the Hall of Famer’s record of 56 in a single season, set in 1997 and ‘98.
Raleigh, who now has as many singles as he does homers, entered the night in a bit of a funk by his standards, hitting .143 in July while going 3-for-51 in at-bats that didn’t leave the yard. But a 10-pitch sequence vs. Misiorowski in the first inning that ultimately ended up in a flyout helped set him up for the big moment later, especially after seeing five fastballs from the rookie over 100 mph.
“I feel like I've been a little late to the heaters lately,” Raleigh said. “So I think, obviously, to start the game with Misiorowski throwing really hard, I had to get ready for the heater. And I did a good job there, seeing the ball well. And from there, it was just about continuing to try to do that and try to do that and try to get my hands back in a good spot.”
Gilbert, however, was the night’s bigger development.
He surrendered just two hits -- a leadoff double to Jackson Chourio in the fifth and a one-out single to Christian Yelich that ended his night in the seventh -- with zero walks before being pulled at 86 pitches.
After missing seven weeks with a right elbow flexor strain, Gilbert has shown glimpses of his greatness since returning on June 16, but not with the totality that Tuesday featured, with elite fastball command early in counts, going 17-for-21 on first-pitch strikes, that set up his slider and splitter for nine of his 10 K’s.
“I just haven't really put it all together, and that's where some of the frustration comes from,” said Gilbert, who led MLB with 208 innings last year but entered Tuesday with just 61 in 12 starts. “It's not like I didn't think I could do it ... so it's nice just to put it all together.”