By Paul Taylor Posted on

Mariners see silver lining with Kade Anderson’s best start yet

The Seattle Mariners obviously hope Sunday’s outing in Colorado offers a sign of things to come for ace pitching prospect Kade Anderson.

Ahead of Sunday’s game in Colorado, the Mariners were facing the prospect of being eliminated from playoff contention if they lost their series finale versus the Rockies. And after managing just four hits and two runs, you could be forgiven for assuming that’s how things played out. However, the M’s lived to fight at least one more day (game), thanks to Kade Anderson’s best outing of his Major League career.

There was some understandable trepidation about Anderson entering Sunday’s game, in part due to coming off his worst performance yet in the majors. Certainly, giving up a career-high five earned runs against the lowly Angels was never going to install the best of confidence in fans. However, what followed was an outstanding display by the Mariners top pitching prospect, as he showed what he was truly capable of.

When it was all said and done, Anderson went a career-best 7.0 innings and had his first shutout in six six starts for the Mariners. He equalled a career-low in allowing three hits, gave up no walks and set a career-high with seven strikeouts. And best of all, he was tagged with his second ‘W’ after the M’s survived a late scare involving Andrés Muñoz, to hold on for a 2-1 win which improved their record to 73-83.

Kade Anderson prospers in a challenging environment versus a strong offensive team

We can acknowledge those who want to downplay what Anderson did, just based on the fact the Rockies have the worst record on the majors. However, to do this is to also downplay what the southpaw achieved on the day. As bad as Colorado’s baseball team might be overall, the offense specifically has been strong all season.

Entering Sunday’s game, the Rockies were ranked fourth in the majors in team batting average and fifth in OPS, contributing towards being seventh in scoring. Making Anderson’s sterling start even more impressive, was that he achieved it despite playing in the high altitude and hitting-friendly setting of Coors Field. As such, for as alarmist as people might have been about his last outing in Los Angeles, they should be as impressed — if not more — about what he did in Colorado.

No matter how you want to break down Anderson’s start, it looks tremendous. What really stood out though, was how efficient and accurate he was over his 84 pitches, with 61 going for strikes and just five three-ball counts. He also continually got ahead in the count, with 18 first-pitch strikes versus the 24 batters he faced on the day.

Continuing to get ahead in the count was key to helping the Mariners win on Sunday

Anderson was the best pitcher in minor league baseball this season, leading the way with a 1.06 ERA and 0.643 WHIP. On Sunday, he discussed how a big part of this success in Double-A Arkansas, was his ability to get ahead in the count early. As per Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times, he said:

“I was getting ahead of dudes, so I could put dudes away quicker, and that’s the new standard. That’s the kind of pitcher I am. I have to attack. I have to go right at dudes, and then be able to put them away when you get to those chances.”

The 22-year-old only let runners reach base in two of his seven innings, including the bottom of the sixth, when he allowed a one-out triple. However, he followed this with two consecutive strikeouts to end the threat and the inning, the second of which came against Hunter Goodman, arguably the best hitter in the Rockies lineup. Anderson said:

“It all comes back to execution. I said that last time, and I just did better job of executing today, and put myself in situations where I can lean on throwing balls out of the zone where they hopefully swing at them.”

Mariners manager Dan Wilson praises his young lefty

Adding some historical context to Anderson’s outing on Sunday, he became just the second pitcher in Major League history to pitch 7.0 scoreless innings at Coors Field within his first six career starts. Mariners manager Dan Wilson was understandably delighted about what last year’s third overall draft pick did on the day in general. Wilson said:

“I told him when we took him out of the ballgame that we had talked a lot about making adjustments from his last time, and when you see something like that and the adjustments that he made today, it was phenomenal.”

Offensively, Dominic Canzone had two of the Mariners’ four hits on the day, as well as both of their RBI to give the visitors a 2-0 advantage. Muñoz allowed a one-out solo blast to Goodman in the bottom of the ninth to close the gap to 2-1, before having to exit the game with a right knee issue. It was then down to Eduard Bazardo, who overcame some nerves which could have seen him blow another game, to get the final two outs and record his first career save,

Now, the Mariners will have a day off on Monday, before beginning their final homestand of the regular season with a two-game series versus the Astros. The M’s are out of the wild card race and sit 5.0 games back of the Rangers in the AL West, who hold the head-to-head season series tie-breaker over them. A season of such promise is about to end in disappointment, but if nothing else, at least Anderson’s outing on Sunday offers some hope for the future in Seattle.

Photos court​‌esy of Tim Rogers Photography

Discover more from Cascadiasports.net

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Leave a Reply