SEATTLE – As Axl Rose’s unmistakable voice filled T-Mobile Park as “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns-N-Roses blared at uncomfortable decibels, the crowd of 42,794 fans, many of whom were there to celebrate the Hall of Fame pitcher that made that song his own, rose to their feet for a second time to deliver an ovation deserving of Emerson Hancock’s stellar effort.
The Mariners’ starter delivered the most dominant outing of his career, pitching seven innings while allowing one run six hits with no walks and career-high 14 strikeouts.
No pitcher in MLB baseball had struck out more than 12 batters in an outing this season.
Hancock had seemingly set the tone for the Mariners to pick up a pitching-dominant win on a night where they celebrated the retirement of Randy Johnson.
Instead, the Mariners wasted Hancock’s pitching “gem” in a 3-2 loss in 10 innings that featured careless baserunning, sloppy play in the field and a failure to add on runs early and execute in hitting situations late.
Such a waste.
The easy trope would’ve been to use Johnson’s dominance as a comparison to what Hancock did on Saturday night. But it was another former Mariners All-Star pitcher, who could also be in the Hall of Fame, that watched from a suite and felt the flashbacks of these sort of defeats.
In only we could read the mind of Felix Hernandez as he watched a brilliant outing wasted due to lack of run support and mistakes in the field and on the bases.
He lived it far too many times in his Mariners career.
Seeing Hancock punchout 14 hitters and the Mariners lose, well, it was the worst kind of déjà vu.
Yes, 14 strikeouts. It shattered his previous career high of nine strikeouts. Even more impressive was that he set a new career high before the fifth inning was finished.
When he struck out Michael Massey with no outs and a runner on first in the fifth, his total reached nine strikeouts. He struck out the next batter, Kyle Isbel, for a new career high. And he added to his career high with a swinging strikeout of Maikel Garcia to end the fifth.
Of course, Hancock didn’t get the win for his efforts. With his teammates only providing two runs of support while he was on the mound and self-immolating a major scoring situation with mental gaffe from Randy Arozarena, there was no room for mistakes for the bullpen.
Eduard Bazardo worked a scoreless eighth inning, getting some help from Arozarena with a diving catch on a low liner to end the inning.
But Andres Muñoz couldn’t close out the potential one-run victory. He allowed a leadoff single to Salvador Perez, who was replaced by pinch runner Lane Thomas. Muñoz was then called for a balk, which moved the runner into scoring position.
He came back to strike out Carter Jensen. But Jac Caglione ambushed a first-pitch fastball up in the zone, sending a hard line drive single to left-center that scored Thomas. Julio Rodriguez misplayed a hop on the single, and the ball rolled past him all the way to the wall since Arozarena didn’t back up on the play. Muñoz didn’t allow the Royals to take the lead, retiring Isaac Collins and Michael Massey to end the inning.
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