NEW YORK -- Call right-hander Logan Gilbert the Road Warrior and stopper. This season, the Mariners’ ace is at his best when he is away from T-Mobile Park, and it was proven once again on Thursday afternoon. On this day, Yankee Stadium was Gilbert’s home away from home, as Seattle edged the Yankees, 1-0, ending the Mariners’ six-game losing streak.
Gilbert now has a 2.25 ERA in 10 starts on the road compared to 4.01 in 14 starts at home.
“I love pitching in Seattle. [The numbers at home] are surprising to me,” Gilbert admits. “On the road, for whatever reason, it’s like a big game. The crowd is against you. Maybe that gets the juices going a little bit.”
The juices must have been flowing. The man affectionately known as “Walter” -- because of his intense alter ego -- pitched six scoreless innings, allowed four hits and struck out seven. Gilbert had 15 swings and misses, and his fastball was clocked as high as 99.1 mph. As a stopper, he knew he had to end the losing streak.
“It felt like a big game, something we needed to win, especially on the road here as we face some tough teams,” Gilbert said. “I felt pretty good. Everybody came through for me. [Catcher] Jhonny [Pereda] was great back there. He won [four ABS] challenges, which were huge.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone acknowledged his team could do little against a guy who had his “A” game working in front of a tough crowd.
“I thought Gilbert was really good,” Boone said. “I thought early on we had some good at-bats against him, right from the jump with [Trent] Grisham and [Spencer] Jones … smoking balls for outs in the first inning.
“... I thought [Gilbert’s] split was really good today, plus he's got 98 to 100 [mph] in the tank. We thought he mixed well, but yeah, a couple of small opportunities. But after a handful of at-bats where I felt like we were on him early, he kind of settled in and shut us down.”
Pitching at Yankee Stadium was a big deal for Gilbert. As a kid, he attended Yankees games. He had dreams of pitching on that mound one day. It happened with success on Thursday.
“Yes, it’s a big deal. Anytime you come here, you always want to do well,” Gilbert said. “There are usually some good players on the other side there. I grew up coming to a couple of games when I was little. I think about that a lot of times -- 12-year-old me was out there thinking I would love to be on the field one day. So it’s a big deal.”
The Yankees’ best chance to score against Gilbert came in the third frame. After Ali Sánchez hit a one-out single, Grisham followed with a hit down the right-field line. It looked like Grisham had a guaranteed double, but Seattle challenged the call that Grisham was safe on his slide into second. The call was overturned because the replay showed that shortstop Leo Rivas tagged Grisham out while his foot slipped off the second-base bag as he popped up. Ben Rice then grounded out to end the threat.
“This was a game of little things. A good one to come out on top of,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said.
The Mariners won the game in the second inning, when Weston Wilson homered on a 2-2 pitch from left-hander Max Fried, sending it over the left-center-field wall to give Seattle its one-run lead. Wilson is the first Mariners player to homer in a 1-0 victory against the Yankees.
Seattle travels to Houston to play an important three-game series against the Astros, who are in first place and five games ahead of Seattle in the AL West race.
“It’s a big deal, and it should be. That’s kind of how it was last year,” Gilbert said. “Where we are in the standings, this is the team we want to be facing. If we get those wins and they also lose and we move up in the standings, it’s a big deal. This is a good opportunity for us.”