Mariners get their champion back, walk off Phillies 6-5

Mariners crawl up out of the mud, sling it in face of Phillies

In late September of 2022, I wrote an article titled “The Mariners Need Their Champion Back” about Mitch Haniger detailing how streaky a player Haniger is; something that surprised me given how steady a presence he’d been on the fledgling new-look Mariners for quite some time. It’s an article I’ve been thinking about for most of this season, waiting for the Mitch Haniger who looked so sharp at Spring Training to emerge, and eventually beginning to feel like maybe, this time, he wouldn’t; maybe this time there would be no bounce-back from the slump for a player on the wrong side of the age curve, that maybe even Mighty Mitch’s legendary work ethic and unquenchable intellectual curiosity about his craft might have met its match in Father Time.

But over the past week-plus, Haniger has re-emerged as a key contributor to the club he helped lead to a championship back in 2022. After hitting just seven home runs from the beginning of the season through June, Haniger has four already in July and the first three days of August, including one in tonight’s game that kick-started the Mariners’ rally in this game—as well as one very important walk, the game-winner in the tenth. This isn’t a game that the May or June Mariners, scraping after offense, would have won. But it’s a game the newly energized post-trade-deadline Mariners won, and Mitch Haniger, far from being an afterthought as he’s been so many times this season, was at the forefront of tonight’s win.

The Mariners fell behind early in this one, as Bryce Miller wasn’t as sharp as he had been in his first few outings. Miller had to bob and weave out of danger tonight starting in the first, when he opened the game with a leadoff single to Kyle Schwarber, who was in a favorable 2-1 count, followed by a double to Trea Turner on a sweeper down but in the middle of the zone. Miller pointed out postgame that both of those were broken-bat, weak-contact singles, but it still put traffic on for Alec Bohm, who hit the ball hard but right at Josh Rojas for an RBI groundout. The Phillies only wound up scraping the one run out of that, as Miller was able to get Marsh to expand up for a swinging strikeout to end the inning, but it was a narrow escape.

After locking it in for the next two innings, Miller struggled again in the fourth, opening the inning with a 12-pitch battle against Bryce Harper that ended in Harper getting a curveball right in the middle of the plate and lacing it for a double. Two batters later, Brandon Marsh singled off a fastball located directly in his kitchen, but Miller was able to get J.T. Realmuto to chase after a splitter for strike three and got Nick Castellanos to expand the zone for an easy, inning-ending groundout. Still, at the end of four innings Miller was at over 70 with his pitch count, and he wouldn’t make it much further.

After getting the first inning in the fifth, Miller left a sweeper on the plate trying to steal a first-pitch strike against nine-hole hitter Austin Hays, who singled, and then walked Kyle Schwarber. He then got somewhat unlucky on an infield base hit off the bat of Trea Turner to load the bases, and Servais signaled for the bullpen. Postgame, Miller said he felt like he pitched better than his final line, and he definitely did suffer some poor luck (as well as Tayler Saucedo allowing all of his inherited runners to score), but he also had some self-created messes due to pitch location and had to dance around danger for most of the night.

Despite getting Bryce Harper to pop out harmlessly, Tayler Saucedo couldn’t hold the Phillies at bay, giving up a pair of two-run singles to put the Phillies ahead 5-0, a seemingly insurmountable lead for this offense—or at least, the former version of this offense.

After the Phillies used opener Orion Kerkering, who gave up a one-out double to Randy Arozarena and a four-pitch walk to Cal Raleigh but escaped when Justin Turner grounded into a double play, old frenemy Kolby Allard served as the bulk man for the Phillies tonight. Allard flummoxed the Mariners hitters with curveballs and changeups, as the Mariners did nothing to beat the “spin it to win it” allegations. Their ineptitude at the bendy stuff coming out of Allard’s right arm allowed his subpar 88-90 mph fastball to play up, leading to some truly embarrassing called strike threes.

But Allard didn’t have an answer for the re-energized Mitch Haniger, who laughed in the face of a first-pitch fastball at 89 mph flush in the middle of the plate. Maybe you could sneak that pitch past June Mitch, but not August Mitch, who slipped this pitch away like a bottle of wine/moment in time, making Mariners fans live for the hope of it all.

“He told me about ten days ago he was about to get hot,” said Scott Servais postgame, and—wow, will you look at the time, Mitch is H-O-T-T-O-G-O.

With Allard at 65 pitches, the Phillies turned to Jeff Hoffman in the bottom of the sixth, and he straight up had a bad time. Hoffman has been one of the most sure-handed relievers in baseball this year, allowing just three runs in his previous 41 appearances, but he was unfortunately a victim of Mariners Mojo, Randy-Style. Arozarena opened the inning by doubling off a splitter that could have tied his shoes for him, redirecting the pitch at 102 mph into left field. “That leadoff double by Randy fired us up,” said Scott Servais postgame. “Two strike splitter, down and in, nasty pitch. Most guys don’t even make contact with that pitch. He hits a double, gets on second, starts to fire our guys up.”

Two batters later, Hoffman, suffering a command outage, hit Justin Turner with a pitch, and then Jorge Polanco snuck a slider through the right side of the infield to score the speedy Arozarena. With two outs, after Dylan Moore had struck out swinging, Mitch Haniger worked the first of two walks tonight—although not his most impressive one—to load the bases and turn the line over to Luke Raley, pinch-hitting for Mitch Garver.

Jeff Hoffman has been excellent this year. This pitch was not excellent: it was a first-pitch slider Raley was ready for, and he almost hit it out, in which case this recap takes on a different theme.

“We needed a big knock tonight, and we got one,” said Servais, who called this a “momentum win.”

But we don’t even have time to dwell on how spectacular a clutch pinch-hit RBI double is because then it was Josh Rojas’s turn to play hero, and he also took Hoffman’s first pitch and shot it past a diving Harper, not far enough for a double but enough that Haniger could score the tying run from third (and Raley could score the go-ahead run instead of being thrown out at home to end the inning, but again, that would be a different recap).

The Mariners had a chance for that go-ahead in the seventh when Matt Strahm hit Victor Robles in the knee with a pitch to open the inning, but Arozarena struck out despite being ahead in the count 3-1, Cal Raleigh struck out on three pitches, and Justin Turner struck out to end the inning. Rough, guys.

After Austin Voth spun a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth, the Phillies called upon José Alvarado, who started out by falling behind Jorge Polanco 3-1 before giving up a sharp base hit (the Mariners immediately opted to pinch-run for Polanco with Leo Rivas, resting Polanco’s sore knee). Dylan Moore went after Alvardo’s first pitch for what looked like an easy GIDP, but Bryson Stott airmailed the throw to first, allowing DMo to get to second. A Mitch Haniger groundout moved him to third, putting Luke Raley in the position of having to come up with yet another big hit against the flamethrower Alvarado. Unfortunately, Raley struck out chasing after a cutter well off the plate. They can’t all be perfect.

The Mariners turned to Andrés Muñoz to hold the line in the ninth, and he did, working through the top of the Phillies’ lineup with two strikeouts and looking every bit his nasty old self. Collin Snider had the tenth for the Mariners, and started out inauspiciously, giving up a walk to Brandon Marsh. However, he rebounded to strike out J.T. Realmuto chasing a high fastball, and then got Nick Castellanos reaching across the plate at a sweeper for a second strikeout. That brought up Bryson Stott, who flew out harmlessly, making weak contact on a fastball seemingly in the middle of the plate, for a scoreless tenth.

The Phillies chose to stick with Estévez in the bottom of the tenth, walking Cal Raleigh to bring up Justin Turner, who they hoped would hit into another double play. He didn’t, but he did fly out harmlessly to put the Mariners in a one-out hole. Jason Vosler pinch-hit for Rivas, who had run for Polanco and stayed in to play second base, and he battled for a full count but couldn’t catch up to Estévez’s 97 mph fastball. Estévez then hit Dylan Moore with a pitch to load the bases, bringing up Mitch Haniger.

Having noticed Estévez struggling to locate his slider—the pitch he hit DMo on—Haniger attacked the first two fastballs he saw, dropping him in an 0-2 hole. He laid off a pair of fastballs away—one that was probably a called third strike but for some dreadful receiving from J.T. Realmuto, who really cost the Phillies tonight—fouled away another, hittable heater on the plate, then was ruled to have checked his swing on the slider away. Estévez came back with 97 up trying to get Mitch to chase, but the disciplined Haniger tossed his bat away and turned towards the dugout in celebration: those that have supported him through this long and painful journey towards finding his way back to himself. A walk-off walk might not be the highlight-grabber of the night, especially when it comes with controversy, but tonight, Mitch Haniger was the Mariners’ champion.

Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports