New dad Gilbert twirls Father's Day gem -- and brings baby to the podium

SEATTLE -- Buoyed by their little ones on a very wholesome Father’s Day, the Mariners rolled to a much-needed 3-1 win over the Red Sox on Sunday afternoon at T-Mobile Park that avoided a sweep.

And front-and-center to it all was new dad Logan Gilbert, who brought the heat with another dominant gem to continue his midseason turnaround, as the Mariners have won each of his past six starts.

Gilbert approached 100 mph early, racked up eight strikeouts and continued to look much more like his 2024 self, when he was a first-time All-Star.

“I think we could call it dad strength,” Gilbert said. “That's probably what it is.”

The lone blemishes to his day were a solo homer to Nate Eaton in the third inning and an awkward tumble towards the end of his outing, while attempting to corral an underhand throw from Josh Naylor on a grounder in the seventh.

But Gilbert was fine postgame, and all smiles -- complete with his 7-month-old, Henry, at the podium.

“I saw him right away in the crowd where they were sitting and just waving at me,” Gilbert said. “And he always loves being at the game, so I was glad everything went well. We got the win. That's all a bonus. Just to be able to start today and pitch in the big leagues with them at the game, it's a huge blessing.”

However, the day’s other key contributor -- right fielder Dominic Canzone -- was forced to exit with a right hamstring injury, though he said postgame that he doesn’t think it’s serious and was expected to travel.

The situation surfaced after he crushed his first homer of the year off a lefty, a solo blast vs. Payton Tolle in the second, then made a remarkable diving catch that sparked an inning-ending double play in the sixth.

“Obviously we're grinding and we've still got some injuries,” Canzone said. “So we're just trying to grind out at-bats, and the pitchers are holding it down for us. So we're trying to put runs on the board any way we can to wait for those guys to get back and play full strength.”

As for Gilbert, four of his past six starts have now been quality.

In this span, the towering right-hander has a 1.49 ERA, a 0.80 WHIP, 43 strikeouts and 10 walks while holding hitters to a .492 OPS. He’s also averaging just over six innings per outing during that span. Over his first 10 starts, Gilbert had a 4.45 ERA and was averaging 5 2/3 innings per start.

“We’re in a really good spot,” Gilbert said.

The clearest factor in his turnaround has been velocity, as Gilbert is throwing harder than at any point since 2024. His four-seam fastball saw a 1.3 mph average uptick on Sunday (to 96.8 mph), which led to nine whiffs and pushed the Red Sox into swing mode.

He topped out at 99.9 mph in the first inning and was made all the more aware by Bryce Miller’s reaction from the dugout.

“He was going crazy,” Gilbert said.

Gilbert turned to the heater for 68% of his total usage on Sunday, his highest in any game since he was a rookie in 2021 -- when the fastball was essentially all he could rely on. Part of this was related to the gameplan, but also at how Cal Raleigh was deciphering swings as the game progressed.

“He went to the curveball a few times with two strikes, and I think that was smart afterwards,” Gilbert said of Raleigh. “Looking back, if guys are maybe in between bat speed, you don't really want to give them a gift -- something at 90 [mph] or whatever. So the curveball at 81 [mph], if you're keeping the same hand speed and everything, I think it does a good job fooling them. The splitter, too.”

Because Gilbert was so effectively in the zone, the velocity set up his secondaries for most of his punchouts, as he generated three apiece on the curveball and splitter. Essentially, he sped them up early in counts, then went for the dagger on the offspeed.

“When you get ahead with that velo, you get that hitter into swing mode,” manager Dan Wilson said, “and then it makes the splitter, it makes the slider work so much better. And I think that was the key today, getting ahead of a lot of guys.”