12 years before I was born, while Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were bemoaning broken glass, the Seattle Mariners were breaking bats. The M’s of 1982 were the club’s crowning achievement, a 76-86 assemblage that was, at the time and until 1987, by far the franchise’s most respectable showing. On a night where the M’s pitching staff dazzled and had to wait for fashionably late aid from their hitters, this club I never witnessed was on my mind.
Having dealt OF Tom Paciorek in the offseason after his 10th-in-MVP-voting season that was the most recognition the club had received to that point, those M’s were shallow at the plate. They’d moved Paciorek for Todd Cruz, who’d become expendable to the Chicago White Sox after the North Siders determined Cruz potentially stealing a bunch of watches from an Edmonton, Alberta department store was a dealbreaker. Seattle also flipped future rotation stalwart Bud Black for 3B Manny Castillo, who gave the ‘82 M’s what he had: limited defense and awful hitting. He also was 2-for-10 stealing bases. I haven’t forgotten.
But what those M’s had for the first – and potentially only time – in the Kingdome era, was a club made competent by its pitching staff. While the hitters fumbled their rationed cromulence between one another, Floyd Bannister, Jim Beattie, Wild Bill Caudill, and Ed Vande Berg put together one of the greatest pitching staffs in Mariners history. They were buoyed by impressive work from Bryan Clark, Bob Stoddard, and several others, including 43 year old Gaylord Perry who famously secured his 300th win in this penultimate campaign. The M’s had, by FanGraphs, the best pitching staff in their franchise history that year, amassing 21.2 fWAR (5th in MLB) and 23.0 bWAR (3rd) by Baseball Reference.
It was novel, not yet enshrined in their ballpark’s fabric to be baseball’s ballast to Coors Field, the bulwark of the Steroids Era and Launch Angle Revolution. The club had little in the way of expectation, nor could it compound their astounding improvements in the years to come. But tonight, watching Seattle’s hitters labor through their eighth game of the season, bearing expectations that would’ve been laughable in every year of the 1980s for a Mariners club, we witnessed a throwback victory.
Both Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez have started the year frosty. Seattle’s 2-3-4 hitters have been glacial at the dish, putting the M’s in uphill battles to score runs with their most frequent hitters producing nothing and less. Aptly, against Anaheim southpaw Reid Detmers, both Raleigh and Rodríguez chipped their barrels. Broken bats, everywhere, cautions the Grandmaster at this recap’s introduction. If it was just Seattle’s superstars, it might as well have been each plate appearance, as neither club mustered more than cardboard threats most of the evening. In their home opener, the Angels managed one hit, one walk, every ABS challenge going their way, and not a damn thing else. Bryan Woo, Matt Brash, Andrés Muñoz, and Gabe Speier made sure of of that.
While Anaheim are roundly expected to clutter the AL West’s cellar this year, at this stage, their lineup is no pushover. For Bryan Woo, whose lone hit yielded was a bloop single Victor Robles nearly speared at full dive and sprint and was backed up savvily by Cole Young, the resemblance between him and the image of an ace grew uncannier. I’ve shared before how much I adore seeing Woo pitch. The flow of his motion is the apogee of pitching to me, fastballs that ride and tumble to their intended locations, sweepers and sliders eluding bats and ending innings. 87 pitches for 7.0 scoreless, one-hit frames, and each reliever behind him was even more dominant. By the time Jorge Soler skied a sacrifice fly to cash in Mike Trout as the Manfred Runner, the end result had already been finished in pen, tossed in a “complete” bin like a Sunday Crossword.
But for much of the night, Seattle slogged. The gusting winds of Orange County blew fly balls back in the yard, added movement to pitches, and otherwise ensured a low-scoring affair. Despite six walks – four from an otherwise impressive Detmers – Seattle’s multiple well-struck gap-shots found premature conclusions in the gloves of Josh Lowe, Trout, and Jo Adell. The game felt, heading into the bottom of the 9th still knotted 0-0, eminently losable.
The ‘82 M’s would look foreign in today’s game in many ways. The club’s 7.3% K-BB% was fourth-best in the league then and would’ve been worst in the sport every year since 2011 now. But they’d have watched with knowing familiarity this predicament, albeit also narrow pride as Muñoz shredded the 9-1-2 of the Angels’ order, spaghettifying Trout on a pair of sliders and then a 100-mph heater at the zone’s apex.
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It feels wrong not to give Woo a clip this evening, but I hope if you did not see it, you can grant yourself a moment of zen. Close your eyes, and imagine this pitch from Muñoz, ad nauseum, all evening. A beautiful process, with many results just as gorgeous as the stage set in the top of the 10th for Seattle. Cole Young did his best Troy Bolton, starting the inning off with yet another highlight in this young season.
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That’s Cole Young, who started against a lefty, and evaded a pinch-hitter, albeit in part due to an early exit for Brendan Donovan which was minimally explained beyond caution with leg discomfort postgame with optimism from manager Dan Wilson. Cole Young whose ferocious early results are a massive feature in Seattle’s ability to overcome the palpitations of their order’s heart. Notably, Anaheim opted to pitch to Cal Raleigh with one out after retiring Rob Refsnyder, whose day at the dish in fairness included some of Seattle’s most capable PAs including a pair of walks. Raleigh, for his part, looked infinitesimally closer to clobbering Brent Suter’s heater, but put a two out opportunity in the hands of Rodríguez. Seeking a left-on-left matchup, Anaheim walked Julio, who dashed to second on a dirt ball to give the club an additional insurance run when Josh Naylor’s single lined into right.
The gap in expectations between 1982 and 2026 are chasmic. At times, I’ve struggled to balance those expectations, finding only relief in a win like this that could’ve been facile. But not today. Woo’s and the bullpen’s brilliance, a timely hit by a hot-starting youngster, J.P. Crawford’s healthy return, and the first road victory of the year. That’s beautiful enough for me.
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