J.P. Crawford’s contract will be up after this season, and the young phenom expected to take his spot — Colt Emerson — already has arrived in the major leagues for the Seattle Mariners.
But that hasn’t bothered Crawford. The veteran hit two home runs Friday night — the first multi-homer game of his career — made a potential game-saving defensive play, and scored the winning run as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks 7-6 in 10 innings.
“That’s J.P. He comes up big in the big moments,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said.
The three-game interleague series will continue Saturday night in Seattle. The Mariners have won four straight games to get to .500 for the first time since April 29 while the Diamondbacks had their five-game winning streak snapped on Friday.
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks for Crawford, the Mariners’ longtime shortstop. Emerson, widely presumed to be the team’s future at the position, was called up from Triple-A Tacoma on May 17 to fill in for injured third baseman Brendan Donovan.
When the 20-year-old Emerson homered in his second big-league game, it was Crawford who greeted him at the dugout and handed him the celebratory trident.
And it was Crawford who went into Wilson’s office that same weekend and volunteered to start taking grounders at third base in anticipation of Emerson eventually taking over at shortstop.
“I want to be a Mariner for life,” said Crawford, in the final season of a five-year, $51 million deal. “And I think that’s the best way to do it.”
Crawford, 31, has also unselfishly helped mentor 22-year-old second baseman Cole Young and Emerson. Crawford and first baseman Josh Naylor took Emerson shopping when the team was in Kansas City last week, helping him buy a suit.
“It means everything,” Crawford said of his mentorship role. “When I came up (in Philadelphia), I really didn’t have anyone to show me the ropes until I got over here, and Dee Gordon and Kyle Seager took me under their wing. And I made a promise to myself to be like them.”
Crawford homered leading off the bottom of the first inning Friday and added a two-run shot in the fifth, giving the Mariners a 5-1 lead. In the top of the 10th, with one out and the automatic runner at third and the infield drawn in, Crawford made a diving stop of a one-hopper hit up the middle by Corbin Carroll. Crawford checked the runner at third and threw out the runner at first.
After the Mariners got out of the inning unscathed, Crawford was the automatic runner at second and scored on Randy Arozarena’s one-out double.
“They’re good hitters … between Crawford, (Julio) Rodriguez and (Josh) Naylor, they’re top customers, and they put it on us,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said.
Arizona’s Nolan Arenado was hit in the left elbow by a pitch in the ninth inning and immediately retreated to the clubhouse in obvious pain.
“There’s a certain nerve in that elbow, as I’m learning … and it just crumbles you. The whole arm goes numb,” Lovullo said. “But he’s going to be in the lineup (Saturday). I’ve already made that decision, and if he can’t make it (Saturday), we will know around midday, but for right now, he wants to play, and I’m going to put him in there.”
Saturday’s game will pit a pair of right-handers in the Diamondbacks’ Ryne Nelson (2-3, 4.65 ERA) against the Mariners’ Bryan Woo (4-3, 3.82).
Nelson beat visiting Colorado 9-1 on Sunday as he allowed one run on six hits over eight innings. The former University of Oregon standout will face the Mariners for the first time in his career.
Woo had won three straight starts before an 8-6 loss Sunday in Kansas City in which he allowed four runs on six hits in 4 2/3 innings. He is 0-1 with a 6.55 ERA in two previous starts against Arizona.
–Field Level Media
