WEST SACRAMENTO – Someone leaned the Mariners’ home run trident -- a gold trophy about 6 1/2 feet tall with three prongs jutting from one end -- against the wall of the trainer’s room in the visitors’ clubhouse. Someone considerate, obviously.
The trident had just been through an exhaustive Saturday night, passed around and paraded through the dugout on the first-base line by celebrating Mariners and hoisted to punctuate five Seattle home runs as part of 23 Seattle hits in a historic 19-1 victory over the Athletics. It needed to lean. It needed a trainer.
The only thing the Mariners missed was the franchise record of 24 hits (done three times, the last in 2004) and the franchise record of 22 runs (set April 29, 1999 against the Tigers). Otherwise ….
• Nineteen runs were the most in a game since May 30, 2012.
• Twenty-two hits were the most in a game since Sept. 22, 2004.
• Five players with three or more hits tied the team record, a mark last reached on Aug. 22, 2001.
“That’s a good feeling when you’re having an offensive night but also pitching wise – the whole team’s clicking,” Randy Arozarena said through an interpreter. “But also it changes the feeling or the sour taste of the loss yesterday. You’re still in the fight. You still have a couple games left. You don’t know what’s going to happen. The team’s motivated and this team’s trying to get into the playoffs.”
The offensive eruption Saturday, coupled with Bryan Woo’s pitching, was indeed about dealing with the past, the heartbreaking 10-inning come-from-ahead loss the night before. And it was also about the future, with Michael Arroyo, MLB Pipeline’s No. 44 prospect, falling just a triple short of a cycle while going 3-for-4.
He got his first big league hit with a double in the fourth inning. That turned into a true breakout night when Arroyo homered in the seventh, then found Julio Rodríguez waiting for him at the top of the dugout steps to hand over the trident.
“What I felt was an identity in a way,” Arroyo said through an interpreter. “Once I got that first hit out of the way, it’s an identity of, ‘OK, I’m a big leaguer now. One that home run came, it just put that aspect of, ‘Wow, I’m a big leaguer.’”
Unlike the precision of Woo last Sunday in Seattle – eight scoreless innings, one hit allowed, nine strikeouts – Saturday’s version was more the grinder working his way out of potential problem innings. Two A’s reached base in the first and got as far as third base on a walk and a single before a strikeout ended the rally, and Woo gave up a base hit in the second as well. He walked the leadoff man in the third, followed by fielding a comebacker to start a double play, only to have his throw to second base sail behind the fielder, putting Athletics at first and third. Lead runner Henry Bolte then scored two batters later as Shea Langeliers reached first on a fielder’s choice.
But needing to dig deep to find stability on the mound came with the confidence of Woo knowing he had dominated the A’s in the past, probably more than any other opponent. He began the night, after all, with a 9-1 record and 1.95 ERA in 11 career starts, the lowest ERA by a Mariners pitcher (minimum 10 starts) against any club in franchise history. In the greatest perspective of Woo’s success against the Athletics, having to work out of jams, but surrendering just one early run, qualified as a rocky outing.
Woo threw 80 pitches in six innings of work that included allowing one run and three hits while striking out five, walking two and contributing a throwing error that provided the Athletics early life. Seattle, after losing four of the last five to an A’s roster shredded by injuries, suddenly has the chance to win the series with another victory Sunday.