CHICAGO -- Heat exhaustion was widespread throughout the Mariners’ 10-7 loss on Saturday afternoon to the Cubs, to the point where reliever Trent Thornton and home-plate umpire Chad Whitson necessitated treatment by emergency medical technicians at Wrigley Field.
Thornton needed to be helped off the field in the eighth inning by Mariners manager Dan Wilson and assistant athletic trainer Kevin Orloski after nearly collapsing behind the mound following a one-out walk to Ian Happ.
But by the time Wilson met with reporters postgame, Thornton was in an ice bath and was doing much better, and he is not expected to need additional medical treatment away from the team.
“Scary moment for sure,” Wilson said. “He battled hard, but just really glad that he's feeling a little bit better now and should be OK.”
That incident followed an earlier situation with Whitson, who after the third out in the bottom of the fifth, immediately descended into the visitors' dugout for help from the Mariners’ athletic training staff, which led to a roughly 10-minute delay and second-base umpire Dexter Kelley replacing him behind the plate. Neither team was aware if there was an update to Whitson’s status postgame.
Then at the end of the game, a member of the Cubs’ field staff also collapsed, but he was doing OK postgame.
Such was the scene in steamy Chicago, where the Friendly Confines saw their highest temperatures (94 degrees at first pitch) and strongest winds (20 mph) -- in any direction, let alone out to center field -- of the season pave way for an extremely hitter-friendly environment, one that some were forecasting would be akin to that of Denver’s Coors Field.
The first pitch from Emerson Hancock on Saturday showed exactly why.
Hancock surrendered a homer to Ian Happ on that initial offering, then another solo blast to Kyle Tucker two pitches later. Then another to Happ in the second inning. And another to Michael Busch in the third. Then reliever Zach Pop took over and gave up another to Pete Crow-Armstrong in the fifth.
“It was hot, but at the end of the day, you've got to go out there and do a job,” Hancock said. “I wasn't able to do it, dug us in a hole way too early on. And that's on me. I just made a bunch of mistakes. They took advantage of it. But credit to our guys out in the field -- our hitters, man, they kept battling. They kept fighting through it all day long. And I just didn't really give us a chance.”
Indeed, in between the Cubs’ power surge, Seattle plated five consecutive runs to pull within striking distance, but the Mariners didn’t get their first long ball until Cal Raleigh went deep in the ninth -- despite playing behind the plate amid those scorching conditions.
Raleigh extended his MLB lead with 30 on the season, passed Johnny Bench for the most before the All-Star break by a primary catcher and broke a tie with three others for the most by a switch-hitter before the Midsummer Classic.
“To get in his last at-bat after a day of 95 degrees,” Wilson said, “he's a fighter.”
Temperatures are expected to reach even higher levels for Sunday’s series finale, which is also a matinee. Wilson and Cubs manager Craig Counsell said they weren't aware if there’d be an effort to push back the start time.
The Mariners travel to Minnesota after Sunday's game and the Cubs travel to St. Louis.