Hancock the latest Seattle pitcher to debut in style
SEATTLE — Emerson Hancock stood within the house dugout at T-Mobile Park in the course of the fifth inning Wednesday night time and weaved his pitching hand by his hair whereas making an enormous exhale to mark the top of his MLB debut.
Mariners pitching coach Pete Woodworth then wrapped his proper arm across the 6-foot-4 right-hander and used his left hand to faucet the pitcher’s chest, a gesture of a job effectively accomplished.
Hancock threw 5 robust innings within the Mariners’ 6-1 victory over the Padres. Hancock surrendered only one run, by way of a leadoff stroll to his very first batter that got here round to attain.
Other than that, Seattle’s No. 4 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, gave up simply two further walks and two singles whereas placing out three to place the Mariners in a powerful sufficient place to succeed in the end line, which they did because of a five-run eighth inning that gave them their seventh straight win.
“The first thing I can think of is the fans, the energy,” Hancock mentioned. “I mean, as soon as I walked out of the dugout, you could feel it. You could feel it in the bullpen. You could feel it when I walked out and when I took the mound.”
Cal Raleigh sparked the rally with a 450-foot homer that almost reached the third deck, eerily acquainted to the one he crushed final fall that clinched Seattle’s postseason berth. The backstop labored a full depend then dug out a sweeper from reliever Steven Wilson, who instantly shouted in frustration because the ball sailed, simply as Padres catcher Luis Campusano leaned again from each knees onto his buttocks.
Everyone knew it was gone.
“It’s the Big Dumper, man. … It was a no-doubter,” Mariners supervisor Scott Servais mentioned. “He hits it, the finish is up high, he looks to the dugout. Like I said, we’ve seen that before.”
Just after, Teoscar Hernández took a 93.9 mph fastball off his helmet from Wilson on a fastball that the right-hander mentioned, “got away from me,” which Servais acknowledged postgame of getting no unwell intent.
Nonetheless, Seattle responded by producing 4 baserunners that led to a different three runs.
The Mariners (62-52) have gained six straight sequence and reached 10 video games above .500. The first time they did so final yr? When they had been 62-52, on Aug. 12.
“It’s been nice to have a few things fall our way,” mentioned Raleigh, who had some blunt self-criticism of the group when issues had been spiraling in late June. “We’re playing good baseball right now.”
Hancock, who departed with the sport tied, 1-1, was the Mariners’ first-round choose within the 2020 MLB Draft. He joined Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo as Seattle beginning pitchers to succeed in The Show this season. But Hancock confirmed extra jitters than the earlier two, attribute for the soft-spoken former Georgia Bulldog, who’s as affable as he’s aggressive.
There was the leadoff stroll to Ha-Seong Kim, then two stolen bases from the Padres’ on-base machine instantly after, which had been manufactured by nice jumps but additionally astute consciousness of when Hancock wasn’t holding him. Kim then raced house on a groundout.
There was a mound go to from Raleigh and shortstop J.P. Crawford when Kim stole his third bag within the third inning to succeed in scoring place for Juan Soto — an try of two leaders to reassure the righty to belief himself.
But there have been additionally the jams that Hancock escaped that most likely outlined his debut greater than something.
“The first inning was kind of tough to settle in, for sure,” Hancock mentioned. “Just trying to slow things down, trying to find a rhythm, trying to get things going. And then Cal did such a good job of just sticking to what we talked about and slowing me down.”
After that mound go to with Crawford and Raleigh, Hancock induced a groundout by Soto to flee the third. Then within the fourth, he labored round a leadoff stroll by Manny Machado by retiring his subsequent three so as. And he punctuated his night time within the fifth, when he labored round a leadoff single by Luis Campusano by placing out Trent Grisham and Kim then producing a groundout from Fernando Tatis Jr.
As the Mariners proceed marching up the standings, they’ve a promising new participant who may very well be key down the stretch.
