Eugenio Suárez carries Mariners to 7-5 win over Royals as team grabs share of 1st place in AL West
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - AUGUST 25: J.P. Crawford #3 of the Seattle Mariners slides home during the fourth inning against the Kansas City Royals at T-Mobile Park on August 25, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images)
SEATTLE - Eugenio Suárez drove in three runs and made a key defensive play in the fourth inning to propel the Seattle Mariners into a first place tie with the Texas Rangers in the AL West with a 7-5 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.
The surging Mariners have caught the Rangers amid their eight-game losing streak to put Seattle into a position they haven't been in 20 years. It's the first time the Mariners have held at least a share of the division lead at this stage of the season since 2003 and the first time they've been in first place at any time in the second half of the season in those 20 years.
"It's been a long time since the Mariners have been in this position," manager Scott Servais said. "It's a credit to our players, staff, organization. We got off to a rough start this year with really high expectations. We have a lot of baseball left to play. There's going to be a lot of crazy games like the one tonight against all different types of teams. What this team has been able to do is we just persevere. We just keep going, keep going and don't get too high or too low. That's what it's been all year. And then we've gone on a good run right now and it's been fun. Fun to watch us play."
The Mariners were tied for the lead in the AL West on August 26 of the 2003 season before fading over the final month of the season to miss the playoffs. The latest the Mariners have had a share of the division lead since was when they were tied for the AL West lead on June 13, 2018. They've been in first place in the AL West after the month of April just four times in those 20 seasons (May 5, 2009; June 2, 2016; June 13, 2018; August 25, 2023).
Since losing 4-3 in 10 innings to the Minnesota Twins on July 24 to move to 50-50 on the season, the Mariners have gone 22-6 over their last 28 games to run down the Rangers. The run has featured two separate eight-game winning streaks and a recent three-game sweep of the AL West rival Houston Astros along the way.
"It's really big for us," Suárez said. "We've been grinding all year long and now we're on top of the (division). That means a lot for us. We never quit. We play hard. Our team trusts each other. It's more important to us. We never quit. We trust each other and we stay together all year long and we've been playing really good games lately. Hard works plays off and I believe in that 100 percent and that's why we're there now."
Suárez robbed Kyle Isbel of a would-be double into the left field corner with two outs in the fourth inning to keep the Royals from adding to a 3-2 lead. Then in the bottom half of the inning, Suárez delivered a two-out bases loaded single to left to drive in a pair of runs and give the Mariners a 4-3 lead.
Suárez tacked on one more run for insurance with a double to left-center field in the eighth inning that scored J.P. Crawford and added another defensive gem in the ninth to retire Maikel Garcia on a slow ground ball to third base.
"Geno has been awesome all year, especially on that slow roller play," Servais said. "The last road trip I think he made four or five of those and none more critical or crucial than the one tonight."
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The Mariners jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning only to see the Royals answer right back. Crawford homered on the first pitch of the game from Kansas City starter Brady Singer to get Seattle on the board. Julio Rodríguez singled and stole second base before scoring on a Cal Raleigh single.
Seattle starter Bryce Miller only managed to go four innings as Kansas City drove up his pitch count early and scored three runs in the second inning to take the lead. Nelson Velazquez and Isbel each delivered RBI singles and M.J. Melendez scored on an errant pick-off throw by Miller to as the Royals took a 3-2 lead.
"The long second inning by Bryce Miller changed the game plan quite a bit there," Servais said. "They just fouled off so many pitches. I think he threw 32-34 pitches there in that inning. So you could kind of tell that his night was going to be shorter."
Suárez's single in the fourth scored Dominic Canzone and Crawford to put Seattle back out front. Teoscar Hernandez doubled to leadoff the fifth inning and scored on a wild pitch from Austin Cox before Josh Rojas' RBI single scored Canzone to extend the Mariners advantage to 6-3.
Isbel's two-run home run off Matt Brash in the seventh inning closed the deficit to one, 6-5. Suárez's third RBI of the night gave Seattle some breathing room and Andrés Muñoz escaped a bases loaded jam in the ninth inning with a strikeout of pinch-hitter Freddy Fermin for his ninth save of the year.
"It's really fun. Every time you win, every time you do what we've been doing it's fun," Suárez said. "We just enjoy it. We come here and we want to stay here at the field. You feel that vibe, you feel the energy is high and that's good for us. We've got to keep doing it and we've got to keep that energy."