Mariners Beat Padres in Historic Fashion

The Mariners took three of four in the strange home-and-home series against Padres, winning the finale in San Diego 16-13.

Okay,  before I start dropping insane stats about the Mariners‘ historic 16-13 win against the Padres in San Diego last night, I have a confession: I turned the TV off after the Mariners trailed San Diego 10-2 in the fifth inning. It was starter Wade Miley balking in a run that did it for me, and his yelling after serving yet another RBI hit that put me over the edge.

Later, while lying in bed reading and trying to think about how to put a positive spin on the home-and-home split the Mariners earned against the lowly Padres that I noticed the lead the Mariners had taken a lead in the seventh inning. I couldn’t believe it. I had to watch the rest of the game on my phone to behold the glory to the end.

The Mariners were headed to sure defeat, down 12-2 after the fifth inning, a day after fill-in starter James Paxton made us all worry a little more about Felix Hernandez‘s injury by getting hammered en route to a 14-6 loss. This of course was preceded by two easy wins in Seattle: a 16-4 stomping and a Memorial Day 9-3 slapfest.

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They entered the fifth down 5-2. After meekly ending their half of the inning, the Padres hung seven more on the Mariners. In the end, Miley was pulled after 4.2 innings and allowing nine earned runs on 12 hits.

The Mariners got five back in the sixth inning, three of their runs on a home run by pinch-hitter Dae-Ho Lee, who became the 22nd player in Major League history to record three hits in three at-bats after entering the game as a pinch hitter. He ended up with four RBIs on the day.

Then all hell broke loose in bizarre fashion. After a scoreless bottom of the sixth, the Mariners scored nine runs in the top of the seventh to take the lead. They scored all nine of their runs with two outs, and the inning included seven consecutive RBI singles. Seven. They sent 13 batters to the plate in the inning.

Check out the fun box score here. Mariners RISP: 11-for-12.

The Mariners completed their first-ever 10-run comeback in team history. It was the first time a Major League team had come back from 10 runs or more after the fifth inning since the Indians did it to the Mariners in 2001. (A game that, had the Mariners held on, would have given them the regular season record for wins in a season, by the way). It was the largest comeback in the Majors since 2009, when the Oakland A’s beat the Twins 14-13.

I could go on with these stats, or you can look at them here. Also, just for fun, here’s the win probability graph for the game courtesy of FanGraphs and Landon Howell:

The Padres had a 99.9% chance of winning after the fifth inning. Hilarious, indeed.

Next: Mariners Stat of the Week

With the incredibly improbable win, the Mariners tied the Texas Rangers for first place in the American League West. They will play those Rangers in a three-game series in Arlington starting tonight at 5:05. Yu Darvish will make his second start of the season against the Mariners’ Taijuan Walker. Let’s not concede a 10-run lead in this one, guys.