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MLB Hands Heavy Punishment to Seattle Mariners For Hit By Pitches vs. Tigers
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- MLB Hands Heavy Punishment to Seattle Mariners For Hit By Pitches vs. Tigers
Brady Farkas and Buster Olney speak on the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast. Subscribe on YouTube.
The Seattle Mariners will be shorthanded in some critical up-and-coming games, as left-handed reliever Gabe Speier was suspended for three games on Thursday for his role in what happened on Wednesday night in a 4-2 win against the Detroit Tigers at T-Mobile Park.
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Manager Dan Wilson was suspended one game as well. Speier is appealing, which means he'll be able to play in the series finale against Detroit on Thursday.
Here's what happened
1) Bryan Woo started the game for the Mariners, hitting three Tigers hitters over seven innings. Now, these hit by pitches certainly weren't intentional, and they were all barely hit-by-pitches. Max Clark leaned into his, while Woo hit two hitters with breaking pitches that got away from him.
2) The Tigers hit Cal Raleigh in the stomach in the bottom of the seventh inning.
3) With two outs and nobody on in the eighth inning, Speier threw a fastball inside, nearly hitting Gleyber Torres . But instead of trying to get back into the count, Speier went back inside, hitting Torres in the back side. The benches cleared and Speier was eventually thrown out.
Certainly a big deal
At 56-59, the Mariners enter play on Thursday at 2.5 games back in the American League West and 1.0 game back in the chase for the third and final wild card spot.
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Every game is a big deal, especially in this treacherous August , so not having Speier for any amount of time is a problem. With Eduard Bazardo 's struggles increasing, Speier is one of only a handful of trustworthy arms in the bullpen, at least until Carlos Vargas, Matt Brash and Cooper Criswell get back . All are hopeful to be back in August, but not soon enough.
My thought on the whole thing
I generally believe in (most) of the "Unwritten Rules of Baseball," so I can understand why Speier wanted to defend Raleigh. That said, you get one shot at it as far as I'm concerned. When Speier missed with his first attempt, you need to back off. It's the second pitch that makes him look culpable.
What the experts are saying
Before the suspensions were handed out, we spoke to ESPN's Buster Olney on the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast, and he gave his thought on the whole incident:
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"I think everybody acted in the way that they thought was appropriately, to me. And I'm not surprised that it played out the way that it did. And I agree with you. I don't think that Bryan Woo was hitting anybody on purpose, but there is that cumulative effect, right? Where a team—and I've talked to many players about this through a lot of years—where, you know what, 'you let a breaking ball get away. Okay, that's fine. You do it a couple times? You hit three guys? Yeah, we're going to retaliate.'
And so who do they go after? The message is being sent to the pitchers' co-captain, the catcher, right? And then the Mariners feeling like they've got to protect their guy. Cal Raleigh is their guy, no matter what kind of offensive season he's having.
So they throw at Gleyber Torres. And look, I should qualify it. I'm not actually inside Speier's head, but yeah, he threw at him. Yeah, I mean, it was pretty clear by the approach.
And I love Gleyber Torres' reaction afterward, where he laid out what happened. He believes he got thrown in on purpose, and then he said, "Yeah, I appreciate the fact that they hit me in the butt. It was baseball stuff.'
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It was the Tigers doing what they felt like they should do, their jobs. This is what we have to do. You can't just keep hitting guys without a response."
Seattle Mariners pitcher Gabe Speier (55) walks off the field after being ejected during the eighth inning against the Detroit Tigers at T-Mobile Park. Steven Bisig-Imagn Images
And then the Mariners saying, "Yeah, we hear that, but you can't hit our guy and not have anything happen."
And then the umpires saying, "We all know that this was done on purpose, so we have to react."
I think, in the end, everyone goes to bed. I don't think there's going to be a carryover necessarily. We'll see."
There certainly could be a carryover with the notoriously-tough-to-deal-with Framber Valdez on the mound in the series finale, which is at 1:10 p.m. PT.
Of note
The latest edition of the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast is out, featuring ESPN MLB Insider Buster Olney. You can listen here, or you can watch in the video player below.
