Mariners 12, Mets 1 (Safeco Field, Seattle, WA)
Mets Record: 61-57
Mets Streak: L3
Mets Last 10: 4-6
WP: Luis Castillo (10-11)
LP: Luis Severino (7-6)
Seat On The Korner: Cal Raleigh
We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.
Today's Seat On The Korner goes to Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh. Though Luis Castillo was superb for six innings, taking advantage of the bright sunshine between the mound and home plate to completely baffle Mets bats, but his backstop blew the game open with 2 home runs and 5 RBI. The Mariners outscored the Mets in the series, 22-1. A road trip where the Mets once looked like they might make up ground, concluded with a three-game losing streak and trailing the struggling Braves by a half game for the last National League Wild Card spot. That's a long flight home.
Need To Know:
Mark Vientos was scratched from Sunday night's lineup in Seattle because of a sore left ankle. Though slumping on this trip (3 for his last 20), he is slashing .270/.324/.536 with 17 home runs and 44 RBI.
On the other side Mariners star Julio Rodriguez, out since July 21, was activated on Sunday night and served as the designated hitter. He went 0 for 5 and was the lone Mariner without a hit in their 12-1 win.
The Mets may have gotten thumped in Seattle, but the current roster has plenty of players who have previously played with the Mariners: Ben Gamel, Ryne Stanek, Luis Torrens, Jesse Winker, Danny Young, and Mets closer Edwin Diaz. Diaz is certainly the best known of the Mariners turned Mets. Diaz, 30, was drafted in the third round by the Mariners and pitched in Seattle from 2016-18, nailing down an astonishing 57 saves in '18 before coming to New York in a trade with Robinson Cano's bloated contract for five players, including the much hyped Jerrod Kelenic. At this point, you'd have to say the Mets won that trade, even if this weekend series was so one-sided that Diaz did not even get the chance to pitch at all against his former team. Diaz's save against the Rockies on Wednesday was his 110th as a Met, surpassing the 109 he had for the M's.
The reconfigured schedule that has the Mets play every team in baseball each season brings the Mariners into the Mets' orbit is not such great news, even beyond this lost weekend in the land of Starbucks and Rainier beer. Interleague play kept the M's out of the Mets' way for six seasons until 2003 and then the hurt began. The Mets are 8-16 lifetime against the Mariners and 2 of 8 in series vs. Seattle. And that even figures in the series won by the Mets at Citi Field last September.
Here's something that comes to mind in the midst of a blowout: Can you imagine how angry Mets fans would be if the team went 20 years without a Sunday Night nationally televised game on ESPN, as the Mariners did between June 6, 2004 and August 11, 2024? Even though Mets fans love to complain--in general--and especially about the inconvenience of Sunday night games, the indignity of being ignored on a national stage would ruffle plenty of feathers if the shoe were on the other foot.
Turning Point
This game was close until the fifth inning. The Mariners led 1-0 with two outs and a man on third. Luis Severino struck out Victor Robles for the second out with a man on third. He got Randy Arozerena to hit a three-hopped to short that Francisco Lindor gloved but it slipped out of his hand. We'll never know if Lindor would have gotten the runner, but Cal Raleigh got Luis Severino with a bomb on the next pitch and a 1-0 game turned into a 4-0 game. And soon it would be a laugher.
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