Jorge Polanco delivers as Mariners rally for walkoff win vs. Guardians
Published in Baseball
SEATTLE — Good start. Better finish.
Jorge Polanco delivered a bases-loaded single off Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Seattle Mariners a 4-3 walkoff victory over the Guardians on Saturday night at T-Mobile Park.
After the Guardians intentionally walked Cal Raleigh to load the bases, Polanco sent a 100.1 mph cutter from Clase up the middle to drive in Miles Mastrobuoni for the winning run after trailing 3-2 entering the bottom of the ninth.
Teammates mobbed Polanco on the infield and showered him with gum in celebration as the Mariners (35-34) clinched the series victory over the Guardians (35-34).
Dylan Moore scored the tying run with one out in the ninth on a wild pitch from Clase that bounced just about 12 feet away from catcher Bo Naylor. Moore didn’t hesitant, taking off immediately from third and scoring on a slide without tag from Clase.
Dominic Canzone had hit a sharp single off Clase to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning. Moore, a pinch runner, stole second and Mastrobuoni, a pinch hitter, drew a walk.
Rookie Cole Young dropped down a perfect sacrifice bunt down the third-base line — on a 99.9-mph cutter — to move Moore and Mastrobuoni into scoring position.
Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez tied the score at 2-2 with a solo homer off George Kirby with two outs in the fifth inning, and the Guardians took the lead on a Gabe Speier wild pitch in the sixth.
On Friday night, the M’s broke through with 16 hits and seven unanswered runs to win the series opener 7-2 over the Guardians, an encouraging sign that the M’s might be finally waking from their prolonged slumber.
That momentum carried over into the first inning Saturday against Cleveland starter Tanner Bibee.
Two batters into the bottom of the first, the M’s had two hits and two stolen bases from J.P. Crawford and Julio Rodriguez.
Raleigh followed with a double off the top of the wall in right field to drive in Crawford.
Polanco followed with a sac fly to center field, scoring a sliding Rodriguez just ahead of the throw home to give the M’s an immediate 2-0 lead.
The offense, as it has so often over the past five weeks, disappeared after that.
The Mariners managed just two hits over the final eight innings — both from Crawford in his second straight three-hit night — and never got another runner past second base.
And when they did finally the rare runner in scoring, Crawford was picked off by Bibee on the pitcher’s spin move and throw to second base, squandering a prime opportunity to take the lead in the fifth inning.
The Guardians got a lucky run off Speier in the sixth inning, with Daniel Schneemann leading off with a soft infield single — 68.5 mph off the bat — and later scoring the go-ahead run on a Speier wild pitch.
Kirby, coming off a brilliant 14-strikeout performance in his last start in Anaheim, wasn’t quite as sharp Saturday. His fastball command, particularly at the top of the strike zone, was shaky by his standards.
The Guardians scored their first run in the fourth inning on Nolan Jones’ two-out RBI double.
Kirby then walked Cleveland’s No. 8 hitter, Gabriel Arias, to load the bases. That was the third walk Kirby issued, matching his career high and snapping his streak of 68 starts allowing two walks or fewer. (That was the third-longest streak in MLB history, trailing Carlos Silva’s 99-game streak (2003-07) and Cy Young’s 85-game streak.
Kirby escaped further harm when he struck out No. 9 hitter Angel Martinez on three pitches — all curveballs.
Ramirez tied the score at 2-2 with a two-out, two-strike solo homer to right field off an elevated 96-mph sinker from Kirby.
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