MINNEAPOLIS -- What’s encouraged Edgar Martinez the most on the Mariners’ red-hot road trip hasn’t necessarily been their 14 homers since leaving the Pacific Northwest last Thursday, but more so, the traffic that’s preceded them.
And sure enough, on a night when they didn’t clear the fence, the Mariners leaned on slap singles, bunts, walks and hit-by-pitches -- “the little things,” as Martinez and manager Dan Wilson call them -- to manufacture a 6-5 win over the Twins that continued what’s shaping up to be one of their best road trips of the season.
“We’re having really good at-bats, which create traffic, then the pitchers have to work harder -- and they make mistakes,” Martinez, Seattle’s director of hitting strategy, said pregame at Target Field.
Julio Rodríguez bookended Seattle’s fourth victory through this five-game trip with a pair of sacrifice flies, the first of which sparked a five-spot in the third inning and the second breaking a tense tie in the ninth off one of the sport’s best closers in Jhoan Duran.
It wasn’t the flashiest of efforts, but that’s perfectly OK these days for Rodríguez, who has spoken about recognizing key moments to put together productive at-bats -- especially when hitting in front of AL MVP candidate Cal Raleigh.
“We just have been executing our plans and playing to our identity,” Rodríguez said. “We're able to create runs in so many different ways, and I feel like we're doing that right now. And I feel like that's why we've been winning.”
Rodríguez’s game-winning moment, which came in an 0-2 count, was after each of Seattle’s first three hitters in the ninth reached to load the bases -- two hit-by-pitches, sandwiched around an up-the-middle chopper from rookie Cole Young, who timed up a 97.2 mph splitter from Duran.
That followed their five runs in the third inning alone, when they sent 10 batters to the plate. Young was a part of that rally, too, as the second batter and with a single. He wound up scoring on a soft base hit from Raleigh, whose home run streak was halted at a career-best four games, though he did come just a few feet shy of extending it with a first-inning double that bounced off the left-field wall.
“Seasons go like this,” Martinez said, while gesturing his hand up and down. “And sometimes, I don't know if it's recommitting to the approach -- I feel that the guys have been committed to the approach -- but sometimes you have your guys that struggle, and it can impact the rest of the lineup. Sometimes, you try to do too much to compensate. There are multiple reasons why things change. And right now, everybody's going good, having good at bats.”
The Mariners (41-37) are now 4-1 on this road trip, over which they’ve scored 47 runs (9.4 per game) and slashed .335/.382/.607 (.989 OPS). Yet Tuesday’s win was just their fifth in 22 games in which they did not homer.
“Honestly, I just feel like when we're staying true to ourselves, it doesn't matter if we're playing at home or we're playing on the road,” Rodríguez said. “We just beat people up.”
Seattle also had to eke out a comeback, after a shaky start from Luis Castillo, who surrendered five unanswered runs, including four in the fourth inning alone.
In turn, that put the spotlight on the bullpen, and explicitly its leverage arms -- Gabe Speier, Carlos Vargas, Andrés Muñoz and Matt Brash -- all of whom pitched a scoreless effort.
For Vargas, it was arguably his most impressive outing of the season, which consisted of four key outs and his fastest pitches of the season, topping out at 100.2 mph.
For Muñoz, it was a return to a non-save opportunity, as the All-Star closer was deployed in the eighth inning -- the earliest he’d entered a game this season and just his fifth appearance in June. The layoff had been due to game circumstances and his inning-specific role precluding him from pitching as regularly, particularly during the Mariners’ skid earlier this month.
“It seems like we are attacking everybody,” Muñoz said. “I think that is a key for us. Go and attack everybody. Don't be afraid of something that could happen.”
So, while Seattle’s offense continued to roll, it needed a lockdown effort from its army of bullpen arms to keep the game honest, avoid a setback and propel this momentum-building road trip forward.