BOSTON -- Ahead of Thursday¡¯s getaway game against the Red Sox, manager Dan Wilson sat in the visitor¡¯s dugout at a sunny Fenway Park and talked about the Mariners¡¯ offensive identity.
Twenty-four games into a long season, Seattle had hit the seventh-most homers (34) in the Majors. Eight players recorded at least one homer across trips to Cincinnati, Toronto and through their first two games in Boston.
Homers have been a big part of Seattle¡¯s recent success, but they¡¯re not the whole story.
¡°I think we were able to hit some home runs in Toronto, we hit some home runs in Cincinnati and here we¡¯ve been able to get runners on base like last night,¡± Wilson said pregame. ¡°We¡¯re gonna grind out at-bats, we¡¯re going to be tough at-bats all game long and that¡¯s what our identity is.¡±
Facing a 2024 All-Star in Boston¡¯s ace Garrett Crochet -- who had given up just four runs over his first five starts -- the Mariners¡¯ offense had its work cut out in the series finale.
Challenge accepted.
Seattle tagged Crochet for two runs over a 29-pitch first inning in an eventual 4-3 victory to cap its long road trip with three series wins and its first at Fenway since 2014.
AL Player of the Week Dylan Moore created early traffic with a leadoff single before Crochet recorded back-to-back strikeouts. Moore¡¯s single came on the sixth pitch, marking the first of 12 at-bats with six pitches or more for the Mariners.
Randy Arozarena battled back from going down 0-2 in a nine-pitch at-bat and hung on for the Mariners¡¯ first of eight walks to extend his on-base streak to a career-best 21 games. Moore and Arozarena came around to score on Mitch Garver¡¯s RBI double.
The following inning, Seattle scored another two off Crochet on a sac fly and an RBI groundout. After hitting his first homer of the season in Wednesday¡¯s win, J.P. Crawford won a nine-pitch at-bat with a single -- the first hit Crochet has given up to a lefty this season.
¡°Our guys were making him work, that¡¯s what they do,¡± Wilson said. ¡°They¡¯re patient, but when they get their pitch, they¡¯re aggressive. And he wasn¡¯t in the zone early, got some guys on base that kind of made it worse, but they just continued to put up their at-bats and do what they do and get some key hits when we needed them and [were] able to hang onto the lead.¡±
For the second straight night the bottom of the order gave the Red Sox trouble with five hits and two runs scored. Two of the hits belonged to No. 8 hitter Leo Rivas, who also made a mind-boggling catch (with an assist from the wind) to end the eighth inning.
¡°They¡¯ve been very patient,¡± Wilson said. ¡°You watch some of their at-bats, Rivas, Williamson, J.P., they¡¯ve been making the pitcher come to their zone. And they get to two strikes and they just keep fighting, keep working the count until they get to a better count and that¡¯s huge. When the bottom of your order can kind of work those at-bats and continue to make that pitcher work, that makes for a really deep lineup.¡±
A low-scoring game isn¡¯t a common occurrence at Fenway, as evidenced by the 24 combined runs scored over the first two games of the series. But four runs was enough for Seattle on Thursday thanks to another strong outing from Bryan Woo and the bullpen holding on for the win.
Woo opened the game with a three-pitch strikeout of Jarren Duran, his first of eight punchouts to set a season high. Thursday marked Woo¡¯s first start at Fenway and his first time facing Boston. The only members of the Red Sox to have faced Woo previously were Blake Sabol (while with the Giants) and Alex Bregman (Houston), who hit a first-inning solo homer off the Mariners¡¯ starter for one of two runs charged to Woo over his six-inning outing.
¡°We didn¡¯t really let them up for air and we got enough in early so that our pitching was able to hold onto and just a great way to cap off the road trip,¡± Wilson said.