CLEVELAND — Perhaps those who like to say, ‘there are no bad days at the ballpark,” never spent 15 hours there, waiting out an endless rain delay that everyone was saw coming, dealing with the strike zone of Angel Hernandez where a ball can be a strike and strike isn’t always a strike, playing on a surface that’s more swamp than sod and all the while knowing there was four-hour flight home awaiting followed by a midafternoon game on Labor Day.
Oh, and let’s sprinkle in two extra innings of baseball for good measure.
If you are going to endure all of that, then losing isn’t an option or even consideration, no matter how easy it might have been to pack it in call it a day.
The 2022 Mariners simply don’t play that way.
So after seemingly endless rain delay of 4 hours and 33 minutes and seeing their normally lockdown bullpen lose a two-run lead while using every available arm, the Mariners scored three runs in the top of the 11th and former starter Chris Flexen closed out a 6-3 victory.
The final out of the game came at 11:01 p.m.
With the win, the Mariners swept the three-game series with Cleveland and the six-game road trip and has now seven games in a row.
With the score tied at 3-3, J.P. Crawford singled home Eugenio Suarez for the go-ahed run and Cal Raleigh crushed a two-run homer for insurance.
The game, which had a scheduled 2:40 p.m. start time, which is 90 minutes later than most Sunday afternoon start times because of an air show that was canceled due to the weather, started officially with Cleveland starter Cal Quantrill firing a first-pitch strike to Julio Rodriguez through a warm mist filling the humid air at 2:41 p.m.
Rodriguez singled, advanced to second on third baseman Tyler Freeman’s throwing error and scored on Ty France’s one-out double to left center.
Cleveland answered against Seattle starter George Kirby in the bottom of the inning. Jose Ramirez, who had been held hitless in this series, singled and scored from first on Josh Naylor’s double to right-center to tie the game.
The Mariners retook the lead in the third inning when Julio Rodriguez sent a screaming line drive into the seats in deep left-center for his 23rd homer of the season. The solo blast made it 2-1.
The delay came in the top of the fourth inning and the Mariners holding a 2-1 lead as the rain increased from an incessant drizzle to a steady pace. Mitch Haniger led off the inning with a single through the rain drops off Cleveland starter Cal Quantrill. As the rain increased, Eugenio Suarez followed with a single to left.
But still, nothing was done.
After Quantrill fired a first-pitch strike to Adam Frazier, who was trying to bunt the runners into scoring position, home plate umpire Angel Hernandez finally seemed to notice what had been apparent to everyone else for about 10 minutes — the rain had already reached downpour status and the field conditions weren’t ideal.
He dramatically called timeout and put the game on hold at 3:35 p.m. ET. The grounds crew rushed on the field to put the tarp they had removed about 2 hours before back on to the infield.
And the waiting in the rain began.
An hour later? Still waiting through heavy rain.
Two hours of time? More waiting as puddles formed on the warning track.
Three hours? Yes, more waiting though there didn’t seem to be much in the way of precipitation falling, which led to some of the fans remaining to start screaming to restart the game. The grounds crew even removed the tarp briefly to prep the infield dirt to provide some hope, only to put it back on and crush that hope.
At four hours into the delay, an announcement was made that the game would restart at 8:10 p.m. local time — weather permitting. The grounds crew pulled the tarp at 7:45 p.m. and the 500 or so fans from the announced crowd of 17,809 rejoiced in celebration though there was only one concession stand open for them to use.
With neither starter coming back in after the delay, big lefty Sam Hentges replaced Quantrill, inheriting a minor mess with Haniger on second, Suarez on first and Frazier in the batter’s box with an 0-1 count.
At 8:12 p.m., Hentges fired his first pitch that hit Frazier, who was trying to bunt, between his shoulder blades.
With no outs, and the bases loaded, J.P. Crawford’s ground ball to shortstop was turned into a double play up the middle but allowed a run to score for a 3-1 lead in the fourth.
Using his relievers inning by inning after Kirby, manager Scott Servais called on Diego Castillo in the seventh inning. Andres Gimenez worked a leadoff walk, stole second easily and scored on Austin Hedges infield single that Crawford couldn’t make a play on.
Cleveland tied the game in the eighth inning. Amed Rosario snapped an 0-for-12 streak, leading off with a single off Erik Swanson. He stole second and advanced to third when Eugenio Suarez misplayed the throw from Curt Casali, allowing Rosario to advance to third. Rosario should’ve scored on Josh Naylor’s high chopper that Swanson calmly gloved and fired to first base.
With two outs, Servais called on Paul Sewald to face right-handed hitting Oscar Gonzalez. The move didn’t yield expected results with Gonzalez dumping a single into left to score Rosario and tie the game at 3-3.