SEATTLE — The old Jarred Kelenic would’ve never watched the first pitch — a 92 mph fastball from lefty Brad Hand just below the strike zone — go by him without taking a hack so vicious he would’ve need to re-tie his shoes.
And if he did somehow take it, he was certainly going to win the game with a “nuke” into the stands on the second pitch even though it wasn’t a strike either.
How about the pitches on 2-0 or 3-0 — all fastballs that he would’ve wanted to reduce to vapor trails, despite not being strikes.
Sometimes you can be the hero without having to swing the bat.
The maturation of the Mariners’ prized outfield prodigy is starting to mirror his confidence and talent. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth and a Friday night fireworks crowd roaring for Kelenic to drive home the winning run with a walk-off blast of some sort, he displayed his growing patience and plate discipline by refusing to swing at any of Hand’s pitches, happily taking a four-pitch walk to give the Mariners a big 3-2 win over the Blue Jays.
But while Kelenic got to celebrate on the field, it was Ty France, who proved to be the hero of the game.
With the score tied at 2-2 in the ninth, Drew Steckenrider the part-time closer since Kendall Graveman was traded and with Paul Sewald on paternity leave, entered the ninth inning and gave up back-to-back basehits to Alejandro Kirk and pinch-hitter Corey Dickerson. A sac bunt from Santiago Espinal moved both runners up a base and put speedy pinch runner Breyvic Valera at third base.
After falling behind 3-0 to George Springer, the Mariners opted to put him on to load the bases and hope for a strikeout or a double play on a ground ball. They got a double play in a different way.
Marcus Semien hit a pop-up into foul territory in shallow right field. First baseman France took off after it, making an impressive over the shoulder catch. He immediately turned and fired to home, believing that Valera would tag up and force him to make a perfect throw in that situation.
He did just that, throwing a perfect one-hopper to catcher Tom Murphy, who applied the tag to Valera as he dived head first into the plate.
Much to the dismay of most of the 28,207 in attendance, home plate Jim Reynolds called Valera safe. Believing that even though the ball beat Valera to the plate, Murphy’s deliberate tag wasn’t on time.
The Mariners immediately asked for a replay review. Reynolds went to the headphones to listen to the ruling from New York. After just more than a minute of waiting, Reynolds removed the headphones and made the out signal. His call was overturned and the inning was over. Teammates mobbed France in the dugout.
The replays shown on the broadcast show a slower than expected tag but also Murphy’s foot blocking the front part of the plate as Valera tried to slide in, preventing the hand from touching before a tag on his forearm.
Seattle got a solid start from right-hander Chris Flexen.
Flexen battled through six innings, allowing two runs on six hits with a walk and three strikeouts. Despite his pitch count being at just 75 pitches, manager Scott Servais went to a very rested bullpen — thanks to Marco Gonzales’ complete game effort Thursday — to cover the final three innings.
Because Flexen threw a season-high 113 pitches in his start Aug. 2 vs. Tampa and 98 pitches in five innings in his previous outing vs. the Yankees, the Mariners, who look at pitch counts in three-game groupings, weren’t going to push him too much in this outing.
He also pitched with traffic on the bases in four of the six innings, including the top of the fourth where he allowed his only runs.
Seattle handed him a 2-0 lead going into the fourth after picking up their only two runs against Blue Jays starter Robbie Ray in the bottom of the third.
Jarred Kelenic led off the inning with a double off the hard-throwing lefty and then watched as Tom Murphy yanked a 1-2 fastball left over the middle of the plate into the lower level of Edgar’s Cantina in left field for his ninth homer of the season.
The Mariners did little else against Ray, who allowed just one hit over his final four innings. He finished with seven innings pitched, two runs allowed on five this with a walk with eight strikeouts.
