Luke Raley, J.P. Crawford’s 6th-inning homers rally Mariners over Braves

Defeat seemed unavoidable. The Mariners were trending toward another four-game losing streak for the third time in their first 36 games. 

The anxiety and anger already bubbling in a fanbase irritated with the inconsistent start a season filled with expectation was turning Vesuvian.

Seattle failed to take advantage of Atlanta’s rookie starter JR Ritchie, loading the bases with two outs in the fifth inning on a hit batter and a pair of walks when a perhaps overeager Josh Naylor grounded out to first base.  

That frustration multiplied when Logan Gilbert served up three solo homers in the top of the sixth as the Braves turned their one-run lead into four.

You could almost hear manager Dan Wilson saying, “Tough one tonight” postgame. 

But the Mariners reversed the slide in the bottom of the sixth with a pair of homers of their own.  

Luke Raley crushed a three-run homer off Ritchie, ending the Bainbridge Island native’s outing and giving the Mariners life. 

J.P. Crawford gave the Mariners a lead they wouldn’t lose, smashing a two-run homer off reliever Tyler Kinley. 

Seattle’s bullpen, now missing Gabe Speier along with Matt Brash, still closed out the 5-4 victory. 

Jose A. Ferrer, Eduard Bazardo and Andres Muñoz covered the final three innings for a much-needed win over a Braves team that, even with the loss, still has the best record in baseball at 25-11. 

“These guys play with a lot of heart, and tonight was no exception,” Wilson said. “They fell behind and they came right back. it’s just a great job on their part to be able to answer back that three spot there, with their three homers with a five-spot of our own.”

Raley came into Monday’s game with just two hits in his previous 32 plate appearances with 13 strikeouts. He had spent the past two days working with Edgar Martinez, who had helped revamp his swing this offseason, to try and find out why he was missing pitches he felt like he should hit.

Raley had worked a walk off Ritchie in his first trip to the plate and flew out in his second at-bat. 

With Ritchie having walked four of the last five hitters he faced, including Randy Arozarena and Dom Canzone to start the sixth, Raley had to walk the line between being aggressive and patient.

“It’s tough,” he said. “He started me off 1-0. I was kind of 50-50 getting in the box if I wanted to see a strike, or how I wanted to go about it. But when you’ve got guys in scoring position, it’s hard to just tell yourself to just see a strike. You’ve got to kind of be more aggressive in those situations.”

Raley thought he would see a fastball up in the zone — a place he had struggled to make contact recently. He got it, but pulled a hard line drive into the stands.

“After I pulled it foul, I thought he was gonna go to something soft on the next pitch,” Raley said. “And he did that.”

Raley was ready for the 1-1 curveball and yanked it into the right-field seats for his sixth homer of the year. After celebrating with the ceremonial trident, he gave Martinez a bear hug.

Was it a thank you hug or a celebratory hug?

“A little bit of both,” he said. “He’s always good to talk to. And obviously, having a guy like that in the cage and being able to work with him is always nice.”

Ritchie exited the field to a nice ovation from family and friends that filled a large portion of T-Mobile Park. He held the Mariners scoreless for the first five innings. His final line: five-plus innings pitched, three runs allowed on four hits with six walks and two strikeouts.

Given the nerves of pitching at home against the team he grew up cheering for, the 22-year-old handled himself well.

Crawford stepped to the plate with two outs and Mitch Garver on first, having worked a walk off Kinley. He fell behind 1-2 on a pair of sliders that were called for strikes. Knowing Kinley rarely throws a fastball, he grinded through the at-bat like always, working it to 3-2.

Kinley came back a slider on the lower inside portion of the strike zone and Crawford launched it to right field.

“I knew I had enough,” he said. “I was just thankful I put a good swing on it.”

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Crawford has joked about his bad luck of late, hitting balls hard that haven’t produce expected results.

“There’s definitely a lot of times where I’m pissed off, but, I mean, after it happened so many times, all I could do is laugh about it, at least for me,” Crawford said. “You just keep telling yourself they’re gonna fall, just stay right where you are, and I’m in a good spot mentally. So we’re all good.”

Gilbert gave the Mariners six innings of work, allowing four runs on six hits with two walks and four strikeouts. 

While the pitching line seems adequate at first glance, Gilbert’s outing was closer to an ordeal. His third pitch of the game — a low slider on a 1-1 count — was tagged for a 426-foot leadoff homer off the bat of Drake Baldwin. 

It set the tone for what would be a night of hard contact allowed by Gilbert. 

Braves hitters laced baseballs all over T-Mobile Park, but from the second through the fifth inning, the hard shots didn’t result in runs. It still seemed like an unsustainable method to success. 

As expected, the continued hard contact would eventually lead to runs. 

Ozzie Albies led off the sixth inning with a solo blast to right center, taking advantage of a 1-1 fastball that leaked to the middle of the plate. 

Moments later, a familiar nemesis made it back-to-back home runs. 

Matt Olson, who used to torment Mariners pitchers during his days with the A’s, jumped on a slider that stayed in the middle of the plate, sending a massive blast into The ‘Pen area — a prodigious blast for a left-handed hitter. 

Gilbert’s first out of the inning was a line drive right at Cole Young that was caught. 

But there would be no catching Austin Riley’s solo blast into the Mariners’ bullpen. The big third baseman pounced on a fastball that stayed on the inside half of the plate. 

Clearly frustrated, Gilbert managed to regroup and finish the inning to end his outing. 

“Obviously you don’t want just hard contact all the time, but they say solo homers won’t beat (you),” he said. “Four of them is not ideal. But I guess it held true tonight. Offense stepped up big time, and bullpen and all that.”

Per MLB Statcast data, he allowed 14 balls in play with exit velocities more than 95 mph, which is considered a hard hit. Eleven of the 14 balls in play were hit at speeds above 100 mph.