On their way to another ho-hum, tweedle-dee-dum performance by the Mariners’ offense, something utterly shocking just occurred in the fourth inning against the Rangers. No, not a two-run rally.
The Mariners actually showed a little fire. They finally decided they weren’t going to take any more of what’s been happening to them.
It started when Felix Hernandez hit Ian Kinsler between the numbers with a fastball in the top of the fourth inning in Kinsler’s first at-bat after hitting a two-run homer in the second inning. Kinsler took one step toward the mound and then stopped, and the clearly agitated Hernandez held out his arms as if to say “bring it on.” In the Rangers’ dugout, catcher Gerald Laird leaped to the top step and shouted to the mound, obviously angry after he’d been hit on his left elbow by a Hernandez pitch in the second inning.
Then it all blew up in the bottom of the fourth.
Rangers starter Kason Gabbard, a left-hander, threw a couple of breaking pitches high and tight to Raul Ibanez and Yuniesky Betancourt — with no response from the two Mariners. Then Gabbard threw a chin-high fastball to Richie Sexson — it was over the plate, not inside — and Sexson snapped.
He threw down his bat, took off his helmet, carrying it in his right hand as he sprinted to the mound. He met Gabbard with a hard right with the helmet to the pitcher’s back, then tackled him and tried to get off a few punches. Laird was in quick pursuit, steamrolling the Sexson-Gabbard embrace.
Then it turned into a classic baseball fight, with lots of pushing and yelling with no big blows delivered. Oh, there was anger. Hernandez, being held back by Kenji Johjima and, of all people, Rangers reliever Eddie Guardado (a former Mariner), did his best to go after Kinsler, who was barking from across the field. Laird also stayed at the edge of the pile and yipped at the Mariners, until Rangers DH Milton Bradley picked him up like a 50-pound bag of potatoes and carried him away.
When the game resumed, Sexson had been ejected, with a good-sized suspension likely to be coming his way. Gabbard remained on the mound, although he was pulled after two more hitters, more than likely feeling the bruises from his confrontation with Sexson.
While a baseball fight is one of the goofier things you’ll see in sports — Miguel Batista ran onto the field without shoes — this one was the first evidence that this Mariners team has a pulse.
Whether that translates into anything meaningful, like hitting with runners in scoring position, we’ll see.
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