Randy Johnson is the first Mariners pitcher I remember watching. Somewhere there is a picture of a mulleted Randy taken by me with a hot pink camera in the Kingdome at a Kid’s Day. It’s blurry, and his head is partially cropped off, seven-year-old me tilting up the camera at the towering figure above me. That’s what it felt like watching him pitch: larger than life, scary, and a little bit thrilling.
Emerson Hancock, while very tall in his own right, does not spark the same fear, with his kind smile and soft Georgia accent. I have seen many versions of Emerson Hancock over the years: the college acee whose career and trip to Omaha was cut short; a young pitcher surrounded by other young pitching that leapfrogged him on his journey to the bigs; a beaten but not defeated Hancock searching for answers after a bad start, and another, and another; and tonight, what should have been a triumphant Hancock coming off a career-best start of 14 strikeouts against not walks, but was instead a chastened Hancock forced to explain away his teammates’ mistakes in a crushing 3-2 extra-innings loss.
Randy Johnson was famous for telling his offensively anemic Mariners teammates “just get me one run tonight, boys, that’s all we need.” Hancock would need just a little more than that. He wouldn’t get it.
The Mariners did oblige The RJ Doctrine in the first. Julio Rodríguez continued his torrid stretch with a one-out double that missed being a home run by about a foot, tagging a 90-mph fastball on the opposite corner of the plate. Josh Naylor followed him up with a classic Naylor single, the high fastball away that he punched into center field for a run. Unfortunately, Randy Arozarena capped the scoring there by unluckily lining into a double play, so the Mariners really did just get the one run, boys. That would prove to be significant, later, in a chain of events that undid this game from what should have been a thrilling win into a loss.
The Royals got their own run in the third through some bad luck for Emerson Hancock. Nine-hole hitter Kyle Isbel got a hold of a cutter at the bottom of the zone and laced it just past a diving Josh Naylor. Maikel Garcia then threw his bat at a first-pitch sweeper on the outer edge of the zone and blooped it into left field to bring home Isbel. Hancock rebounded even with one out, getting Bobby Witt Jr. to pop out on the sweeper (assisted by a strong throw from Luke Raley to hold the runner at second) and ending the inning on a strikeout looking to Vinnie Pasquantino, a perfectly spotted four-seamer at 97.4 mph.
The Mariners were able to get a go-ahead run in the fifth but it came…weirdly. With one out, the Mariners loaded the bases on back-to-back-to-back singles from Leo Rivas, J.P. Crawford, and Julio Rodríguez; Rivas then scored on a wild pitch by Royals starter Seth Lugo, the reigning Royals organizational Pitcher of the Month. Josh Naylor then struck out for the second out, but Randy Arozarena walked to re-load the bases…and then was picked off to end the inning, having lost track of the count. Manager Dan Wilson was gracious about the mental mistake postgame, saying there are times where he’s forgotten the count, or rolled the ball back with runners on, but once again, a scoring chance would be squandered, and eventually, the Mariners would run out of chances.
That sent Hancock out to protect the precious one-run lead once again. It looked like he might be done after the sixth, having to work around a leadoff ground-ball single from Bobby Witt Jr. followed by a line drive base hit from Vinnie Pasquantino. With Hancock’s velocity trending downwards and some location misses with sinkers leaking onto the plate, things felt dangerous. But Hancock spun a bunch of sweepers at Salvador Perez to get him to strike out, retired Carter Jensen on a frankly scary flyout, and then got Jac Caglianone to tap a comebacker right at him to end the inning without trouble.
Then, a surprise: Dan Wilson sent Hancock back out for a seventh inning of work, and Hancock dug down for what he had left, collecting two more strikeouts from the bottom of the order and getting Kyle Isbel to pop out softly to put a cap on his night. It was a brilliant, beautiful performance from Hancock that deserved so much better than this loss. It deserves a full recap devoted to the particular journey Hancock has taken this season, tunneling himself out of the fear and doubt and ineffectiveness of his first few seasons, bad outings and worse ones, and the perseverance he’s shown in making himself into not just a big-league starter, but the current anchor of this rotation.
If you want to just watch this highlight and stop reading, go ahead. I won’t fault you.
But once again, the bullpen wasn’t able to protect that slender lead, and the offense wasn’t able to add on. To be clear, Eduard Bazardo is blameless in this; he worked a clean eighth inning with some help from a diving Randy Arozarena. But Andrés Muñoz had the ninth and things started off roughly, with perpetual Mariner-killer Salvador Perez lining a leadoff single into right field and then pinch-runner Lane Thomas getting to second on a called balk. “DAN DO SOMETHING!” hollered one aggrieved fan in front of me in the press box and honestly, yes, I would also have liked for Dan to fix it somehow. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do. Muñoz struck out Carter Jensen on a slider, but then Jac Caglianone ambushed a first-pitch heater for an RBI single – and then advanced to third on a fielding error by the normally surehanded Julio Rodríguez, who just sort of…let the ball roll past him. A swinging bunt from Isaac Collins advanced the runner to third, bringing up Michael Massey, who popped out to end the inning and make Julio’s error academic, but it felt like another missed stitch in the ugly afghan that was this game. May seems a little late to be making these kinds of mistakes, and so many of them.
The Royals brought out the anciént one (Matt Strahm) again for the ninth, causing Wilson to dip into his bench and summon Rob Refsnyder to pinch-hit for Canzone after Cole Young flew out softly for the first out of the inning. But righty pinch-hitters Refsnyder and Connor Joe couldn’t get anything cooking, and the game went to extras.
Cooper Criswell was tasked with handling the tenth and immediately had a base stolen off him, but was able to strike out Kyle Isbel for the first out of the inning, so it was basically like the sac bunt worked. That turned the lineup over, though, and Maikel Garcia was able to get that runner home with a shallow sac fly. Criswell was able to retire Bobby Witt Jr., but the Mariners – who hadn’t scored on a hit since the first inning of the game, remember – now entered with the bottom of their lineup to try to score off Royals closer Lucas Erceg.
They did not. It’s not important how. In lieu of dwelling on this annoying, frustrating, frankly godawful loss, let’s return to Emerson Hancock. While images of Randy Johnson snarling and strutting filled the giant screen behind him, Hancock warmed up as he always does, keeping an even tempo. The old baseball rule is you don’t talk to pitchers on their start days; most of the Mariners starters don’t follow that, but definitely not Hancock, who greets every member of the media as he does every day, with a soft hello-how-are-ya. Pregame, he was hanging on the batting turtle with Kevin Seitzer, maybe talking about the Braves, who come into town next, cheering a Dominic Canzone homer that scraped the upper deck. Hancock admitted he was a little starstruck by the baseball luminaries – Nolan Ryan and Pedro Martinez among them – whose voices filled the stadium before his start, but stopped short of saying he felt pressure to bring something of their greatness into his game, despite his career-best performance.
“You go out there and you try to be someone you’re not, you try to do something you don’t usually do, you can run into a trap,” said Hancock.
Not intent to dominate but intent to compete. Not a 99 mph fastball but one that ticks down to 93 at times and he lets it. Not an untouchable, harrowing presence, but a warm one that reflects the Georgia sun and open farmlands. Not a snarl but a smile. Emerson Hancock has always done it his way, and tonight he did it better than he ever has. In a frustrating game, that’s worth holding on to – the lesson that you don’t have to borrow anyone else’s persona to be great. Stick to who you are, be who you are, and you can find your own way to it, no matter how long it takes.
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