ST. PETERSBURG -- The Mariners needed a day like Sunday.
They snapped their five-game losing streak by getting the timely hits they had been looking for all week long in an 8-2 win over the Rays at Tropicana Field. They received a fantastic effort from their bullpen. They earned a reason to feel optimistic ahead of the cross-country flight that will take them into the All-Star break.
Even on a good day, however, the Mariners still had a cause for concern.
Right-handed starter Emerson Hancock left the game in the bottom of the second inning, one frame after he took a sharp comebacker off of his pitching hand.
Although Hancock stayed in after deflecting Yandy Díaz’s 107.2 mph grounder, he said the bruise on his right middle finger kept getting worse during the Mariners’ three-run top of the second. As the digit continued to swell, Hancock was lifted with two outs in the second after an in-game visit from manager Dan Wilson and head athletic trainer Kyle Torgerson.
As a clearly disappointed Hancock made his way to Seattle’s dugout, he continued to look at his right hand. However, it appears the worst-case scenario was avoided, as X-rays came back negative. He’ll use the All-Star break to recover, and he and Wilson believe this won’t be a long-term issue.
“I just kind of kept grabbing at it, and at that point, probably just best for the team [to exit],” Hancock said after the game, his middle finger covered in bandages. “You don’t want to be a hindrance in any way out there.
“I think we’ll just kind of let it settle down for a couple days, and in my mind, I think everything should be fine.”
The right-hander instinctually reached out for Díaz’s hot shot on his first pitch of the game. Once the ball smacked off his hand, Hancock had the wherewithal to get off the mound, field the ball and make a throw to first for the out. Hancock walked back atop the mound, shaking his right hand and flexing his fingers. After throwing a handful of warm-up pitches under the watchful eyes of Wilson and Torgerson, he was deemed OK to continue.
Hancock retired the next two batters on five pitches, including a strikeout of Rays star Junior Caminero on a 79 mph cutter. His stuff still looked sharp, and he didn’t experience any significant change in velocity.
But after a full-count, 96.5 mph sinker to Mesa missed away, Hancock knew he could no longer continue.
“You just don't want to go out,” he said. “It's the second inning in a game in which we really wanted to get a win. ... You don't want to have anybody going in there in the second inning and have a bullpen game the rest of the way. But the job they did today, that was huge.”
As the starter nursed his hand, the Mariners’ bullpen had his back. Ferrer, Nick Davila, Gabe Speier, Michael Rucker, Eduard Bazardo and Andrés Muñoz combined to hold the team with the best record in the American League to two runs on four hits over 7 1/3 frames.
“We had all the arms that we needed ready to go, and they stepped up and filled a huge void for us,” Wilson said.
While its pitchers put up zeroes, Seattle’s bats finally came to life after scoring a total of 12 runs during its five-game losing streak. All-Star outfielder Randy Arozarena delivered what Wilson called “the exclamation mark” with a three-run homer in the fourth inning.
The former Rays star bopped 44 dingers inside the Trop during his five-year run with Tampa Bay. As his first dinger as a visitor reached the right-field seats, Arozarena flashed a wide smile toward the home dugout along the first-base line.
The Mariners also snapped their prolonged offensive drought with runners in scoring position. After 27 consecutive hitless at-bats in RISP situations dating back to Tuesday, Cole Young finally broke the seal with a single to right field in the second inning that loaded the bases.
Three batters later -- and with the bases reloaded following a sacrifice fly from Victor Robles and a walk to Buddy Kennedy -- J.P. Crawford fought off an inside fastball from Rays starter Ian Seymour and blooped it into shallow left for a two-run double. It was part of a three-RBI day for Crawford, giving the veteran infielder his first RBIs in 14 games.
“This was a tough road trip, but I feel like in a lot of ways we were in a lot of these games until the end, and they kept fighting,” Wilson said. “That's the fight we'll continue to see here in the second half.”