SEATTLE -- On a night when Julio Rodríguez was the Mariners’ human highlight reel, Logan Gilbert proved to be the evening’s MVP.
Gilbert carved through the Padres for a career-high 12 strikeouts over seven shutout innings to lift the Mariners to a 2-0 victory, extending their season-best win streak to six and advancing them to nine games above .500 (61-52). They also moved within two games of the final AL Wild Card spot with 49 to play.
No team in baseball has a better record than Seattle’s 23-10 since the start of July, and Gilbert has been on the mound for seven of those games -- all wins, beginning with his shutout in San Francisco on the Fourth of July and continuing to Tuesday’s career night.
“I think it's just a lot of practice and good execution, just everything coming together,” Gilbert said. “It doesn't always turn out like this, but when it does, it's pretty fun. And in a game like that, too. It's a close game. Every pitch matters.”
The only hit that Gilbert surrendered was an infield single from Xander Bogaerts with one out in the second, which chopped in front of second baseman Dylan Moore and might’ve yielded an out if fielded cleanly. Playing almost directly behind the bag, Moore ran in for the short dribbler that caromed off the mound and in front of shortstop J.P. Crawford, who might have been in position to make the play.
Regardless, Gilbert got out of that jam and allowed no other baserunners among the 17 batters he faced the rest of the way, marking the fourth time in this outstanding run in which he hasn’t allowed a walk. He was also aided by three stellar catches from Rodríguez, including an epic and showman home-run robbery against Fernando Tatis Jr.
“With the defense playing behind me, I'm just trying to do my part to keep things going,” Gilbert said. “And with the win streak, trying to just keep it going.”
Tuesday marked just the second time in franchise history that a starter had struck out 10, issued zero walks and gave up one hit or fewer. The other? Félix Hernández’s perfect game on Aug. 15, 2012.
How did he do it? By throwing the kitchen sink at the Padres’ loaded but underachieving lineup, with multiple strikeouts on his four-seam fastball (four), slider (six) and new-look splitter (three), which has blossomed into a true weapon, especially to lefties.
But it’s the complete fortification of his repertoire that’s allowed him to take off. Gilbert has always possessed quality secondary pitches, but at times struggled to harness them over his first two seasons. That made his elite, high-90s fastball more predictable to hitters and led to 14 of his 19 homers last season.
The evolution of the splitter, which he first unveiled in Spring Training, has also helped him stay on the attack after getting ahead in counts. Gilbert only reached a three-ball count twice on Tuesday. One of those was to Juan Soto, who struck out three times against a righty in a game for the first time.
“That's where the split-finger pitches really come into play, for me,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “It's something that guys, they don't see a lot of. The fact that he's throwing it hard and it's just got a different grip and he's throwing just like his fastball and the bottom just drops out of it. It's really, really effective.”
Gilbert was already having a solid season, but what he’s quietly accomplished over the past month has been a huge factor in Seattle’s mid-summer surge.
And perhaps just as vital is that he’s doing so at a time where the Mariners are reaching a point of managing a new injury and workload situation with Bryan Woo, who was placed on the 15-day IL earlier Tuesday with right forearm inflammation. Top pitching prospect Emerson Hacock joined the club in Seattle and is expected to be installed to the rotation, potentially as soon as Wednesday.
Beyond Gilbert, Matt Brash worked around a double from Jake Cronenworth and wild pitch in the eighth that put runners on the corners, and Andrés Muñoz recorded his fourth save in as many tries since the club dealt Paul Sewald to Arizona ahead of last week’s Trade Deadline.
Pitching and defense has been the Mariners’ formula since emerging from their rebuild two years ago. And it’s thrust them back into the postseason race.