– by Adesina O. KoikiA Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEW YORK — Before they entered the ninth inning on Monday night, the Seattle Mariners offense had all of three hits, found themselves down three runs against a team that hadn’t lost in more than a week and began the frame facing a pitcher who had not allowed a run all season.
To paraphrase Jim Carrey’s character in Dumb & Dumber, Lloyd Christmas, all I’m saying is that the Mariners had a chance. And as dumb as that actually sounded, what soon unfolded was even harder to believe: an epic Mariners’ rally that even left many of the players stunned soon after they had completed the thrilling comeback.
Ty France hit a go-ahead RBI single with two outs in the ninth to complete a four-run inning for the Mariners in their 5-4 victory over the New York Yankees inside Yankee Stadium to start their four-game set. Seattle had four hits in the ninth — one more than they had in the first eight innings — off of Yankees closer Clay Holmes, and benefitted from a Gleyber Torres error that scored the first run during the inning, with Dominic Canzone’s sac fly to right tying the game before France’s heroics with two outs.
“We’ve had a lot of crazy wins here over the last seven, eight, nine years that I’ve been here, but I don’t know if anything [was] wilder than that one,” said Mariners manager Scott Servais. “Tremendous effort by our guys just hanging in there. Don’t quit. You cannot quit in this game. You keep grinding. Certainly things were not looking really good. One of the best closers comes in and hadn’t given up a run all year, but you find a way.”
That way tonight was first paved by Canzone, who hit a solo homer in the eighth inning with one out off New York starter Marcus Stroman, who was replaced by Yankees manager Aaron Boone afterward. Stroman went 7 1/3 innings and allowed just that run on three hits, the first time the Mariners allowed a starting pitcher to work at least seven innings in a game this season.
Though the Mariners didn’t get another hit in the eighth off reliever Luke Weaver and allowed what appeared to be an insurance run in the bottom of the inning, that never-say-die attitude was shown in Dylan Moore’s catch-and-tag of Jon Berti on a stolen base attempt that ended in the inning, a play that was overturned upon review after Berti was initially called safe.
Holmes came on to shut the door, almost a sure thing for the Yankees since he had not allowed an earned run since September 21 of last season, but he allowed five straight batters to reach base after getting leadoff hitter Josh Rojas to ground out. Julio Rodríguez reached on an infield single before Cal Raleigh walked. Luke Raley then hit an infield single to second, and Gleyber Torres’ throw to first went into the Yankees dugout, allowing Rodriguez to score and cut Seattle’s deficit to 4-2.
Mitch Haniger singled to right to score Raleigh before Dylan Moore worked a walk after being down in the count 0-2 to lead the bases. Canzone tied the game on the sac fly to right before Ty France, with two outs, hit the game-winning single that stunned the Yankee Stadium crowd.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Monday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Roberto Carlo. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are eight pictures in total.
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