hit in the head by a baseball<\/a> in the batting cage, doubled to right-center to start the rally.<\/p>\nLeo Rivas, the hero from Friday night\u2019s win, drove him home with a single to right field to make it 4-3. <\/p>\n
It brought Arozarena \u2014 the Mariners\u2019 most consistent hitter this season \u2014\u00a0to the plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t looking to (hit) a home run,\u201d Arozarena said through third-base coach Carlos Cardoza.<\/p>\n
But Arozarena was looking for a certain pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy plan was to sit breaking ball,\u201d he said. \u201cI saw some breaking balls yesterday from him and he got the better of me. But I went in committed to that plan of hitting the breaking ball. When I\u2019ve had doubt, it doesn\u2019t necessarily turn my way. But I was fully committed to my plan, and I was able to make the most of it sitting on that breaking ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Webb got called strike on a first-pitch slider and went back to the same pitch in essentially the same location only slightly lower. Arozarena drove it the deepest part of the park. Pete Crow-Armstrong, a master of the absurd catches, measured the blast in hopes of making a soul-crushing homer robbery. But the wall intervened as Arozarena\u2019s blast carried over it. The drive measured 404 feet.<\/p>\n
Was Arozarena worried that PCA might rob him?<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, no, no, no,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew I got it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arozarena can speak from experience. He robbed Miguel Amaya of a solo homer in the third inning as well. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s my biggest game,\u201d Arozarena said. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect to come into the game and hit two home runs and rob one, but, yes, it was a special day for me, a special performance for myself, but most importantly, being able to help the team win is the biggest thing for today.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the Astros (65-65) losing to the A\u2019s and the Rangers (64-66) getting shut out by the Angels, the Mariners, who improved to 62-68 with the win, moved to three games back of Houston\u2019s AL West lead and a game behind the Rangers. Seattle sits two games back of the third wild-card spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hunger this team has right now, it\u2019s something that motivates me personally,\u201d Arozarena said. \u201cThis is what we\u2019re fighting for. We\u2019re fighting to get a playoff berth, and it\u2019s something we\u2019ve been talking about since spring training. There are ups and downs throughout the season, but right now we\u2019re fighting together to get to that spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
A series win over the Cubs with a chance to sweep on Sunday would certainly be considered the \u201cups\u201d in a brutal stretch of games vs. playoff-caliber opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re playing tough teams,\u201d Dan Wilson said. \u201cIt\u2019s gonna go back and forth. That\u2019s baseball. To take that ballgame was huge. There\u2019s a lot of fight in there, and they continued to show it today.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ninth-inning rally and walkoff win eased, but certainly didn\u2019t erase, some of the anger and frustration from fans in the handling of Anderson and a lost 2-1 lead.<\/p>\n
Anderson, who was the consensus top pitching prospect in MLB, was solid if not dominant in his debut. He had worked the first five innings, allowing just one run on three hits and throwing 72 pitches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He had also never thrown more than 80 pitches in any of his outings with Double-A Arkansas this season. And because he was so efficient, he rarely worked through a lineup three times. The most batters he faced in one game was 24. Meanwhile, the Cubs as a team have an .826 on-base plus slugging percentage when facing starters for third time in a game \u2014 the second highest in all of MLB.<\/p>\n
Knowing the top of the Cubs order coming to the plate in the sixth inning, Dan Wilson had right-hander Carlos Vargas warming in the bullpen.<\/p>\n
Would Dan Wilson make the switch after five innings?<\/p>\n
With his teammates having given him a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth, Anderson sprinted from the dugout to start the sixth and face Crow-Armstrong \u2014 the favorite to win the National League Most Valuable Player \u2014 to start the inning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe still had, you know, some pitches to go, and we thought he was throwing the ball extremely well,\u201d Dan Wilson said.<\/p>\n
Crow-Armstrong ripped a double off the top of the wall that was just inches from a home run. <\/p>\n
But Dan Wilson remained in the dugout, allowing Anderson to face Seiya Suzuki. The Mariners got an unexpected double play when Suzuki grounded out to Weston Wilson. But seeing Crow-Armstrong was meandering off second on Weston Wilson\u2019s throw across the diamond, first baseman Josh Naylor immediately fired the ball to second to catch Crow-Armstrong.<\/p>\n
With two outs, Dan Wilson wanted to let Anderson try and get through six innings even with the ever-dangerous Alex Bregman coming to the plate. Anderson notched his first-career strikeout on his fellow LSU alum in the first inning and got him to pop up in the third inning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had the big double play and it was a chance for him to really finish it off,\u201d Dan Wilson said. \u201cUnfortunately, it didn\u2019t go that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anderson left a first-pitch changeup up in the zone and Bregman pounced on the mistake, sending it into The \u2018Pen for a game-tying solo homer.<\/p>\n
Would Dan Wilson pull Anderson? No, he let him face left-handed hitting Michael Busch, who had struck out in both previous plate appearances. Following Bregman\u2019s plan, Busch ambushed a first-pitch slider that hung in the middle of the plate to give the Cubs a 3-2 lead.<\/p>\n
Wilson finally pulled Anderson and brought in Carlos Vargas, who allowed another run to make it 4-2. <\/p>\n
Anderson\u2019s final line: 5\u2154 innings pitched, three runs allowed on five hits with two walks and five strikeouts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn\u2019t afraid to throw anything in any count,\u201d Dan Wilson said. \u201cI just thought, for a first time out there, he looked very, very comfortable. He showed the poise that we all knew he had, and just really handled his first start very, very well.\u201d<\/p>\n
BOX SCORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Randy Arozarena\u2019s first swing of the game Saturday produced a rocket of a solo homer into The \u2018Pen.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[2520,8,2012,768,9,7,11537],"class_list":["post-69203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-stories","tag-baseball","tag-headlines","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-wpresize"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/117143096944816636","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}