SEATTLE -- It was fitting that Cal Raleigh came back from the injured list just in time to catch Logan Gilbert, the pitcher he has more experience working, innings-wise, with than anyone else in the Mariners’ organization.
Fitting, at least, until he nearly drilled Gilbert in the head with a throw back to the mound when he wasn’t looking, in the sixth inning of Seattle’s 3-1 win.
“It was one of those things where you kind of freeze. … I was just watching, like, ‘Oh my god,’” Raleigh said. “I thought it was going to hit his big head.”
“I told him afterwards, good thing he’s not accurate, because he barely missed me,” Gilbert said.
OK, so there was one missed connection.
Other than that, though, it was a storybook return to the battery dynamic that’s become one of the foundations of the Mariners’ current era, as Gilbert fired seven innings of one-run ball and matched a season high with 10 strikeouts.
“Those two have so much history together,” manager Dan Wilson said. “They go way back; they go back to A-ball. They’ve worked together so long, and it worked out well tonight that that was his first draw, getting back into that lineup with that familiarity.”
Tuesday’s gameplan started with Gilbert’s fastball, and only relied on it more as the game went on.
Gilbert threw 54 four-seam fastballs in his 94 pitches to the Orioles, a usage rate of 57 percent well above his season average. And the Orioles had no shot against it, swinging and missing 12 times vs. the heater -- Gilbert’s most whiffs on that pitch in a game since Sept. 19, 2022.
“After the first couple of innings, it looked like Cal really wanted to roll with it,” Gilbert said. “I had a lot of confidence seeing some of those swings.”
For the second straight outing, Gilbert ran into trouble in a slog of a first inning. Last week in Baltimore, he turned it on after a slow second and ground out six innings. This time around, he only allowed the one rough frame, and after surrendering a two-out RBI single, he went on to retire 18 of the final 19 batters he faced.
“You go into it with your gameplans, and then you see things as the game goes on. It seemed like he had a really good heater today, on top of really locating it,” Raleigh said. “Those two things really came together.”
The seven-inning gem was Gilbert’s second of the season. Last year, the right-hander went seven innings on Opening Day, and then didn’t get that far into a game the rest of the year.
And it’s no coincidence that such a performance came in Gilbert’s first start throwing to his fellow 2018 Draft pick, who he’s been with every step of the way from the Minors to Major League stardom.
“He knows me really well,” Gilbert said. “… I don’t know how to explain it, but I’m just used to it. I just like the way he sets up, what the plan is, all that kind of stuff.”