Through the end of April, Jorge Polanco was among the best players in baseball.
In May, he arguably was the worst.
So what can the Seattle Mariners expect for the rest of the season?
Polanco is at least average thus far this month, however he has been instrumental in helping the slumping Mariners win their past two games against the visiting Cleveland Guardians. The teams will play the finale of the three-game series scheduled for Sunday afternoon in Seattle.
Polanco’s bases-loaded single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning Saturday off Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase helped the Mariners rally for a 4-3 victory.
“We all know he throws really hard, so just trying to be short to the ball and trying to get a piece of it,” Polanco said. “… That’s what we come here and play for, you know. We’ve got the confidence to win, and things are going good right now. We have a couple wins in a row and we’ve just got to keep it going.”
That came after Polanco had a double and homer the previous night in a 7-2 decision.
Polanco re-signed with the Mariners in the offseason to play third base, but an oblique injury has limited him to designated hitter duties and forced the switch-hitter to primarily bat from the left side.
He shined in March and April, batting .384 with nine homers, 25 RBIs and an OPS+ of 239 (100 is league average). If not for the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge, who was leading all the Triple Crown categories, Polanco would have been an early MVP contender.
But then the calendar flipped to May.
In that month, Polanco hit .139 with one homer, five RBIs and an OPS+ of 17.
He has hit .283 thus far this month, with his homer Friday his first this season batting right-handed.
“He was so solid for us early and sometimes that’s just baseball, and it kind of comes back a little bit,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said of Polanco. “Even with this tougher stretch for him, just having his presence in that lineup is big.”
The Mariners can use the offensive help they can get, as they lost eight of nine games entering the Cleveland series to go from a half-game up in the American League West to 4 1/ 2 games behind division-leading Houston.
The Guardians also have been slumping, dropping seven of their past nine.
Jose Ramirez’s solo homer helped them overcome an early two-run deficit Saturday before Clase allowed the tying and winning runs.
Clase walked three batters — two intentionally — in the inning, gave up two hits and threw a wild pitch that allowed the tying run to score.
“We got into a tough situation,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “We had to put some people on to set up the double play. But I thought everything went well, or we made the adjustments. Just didn’t get the result.”
Sunday’s series finale is scheduled to feature a pair of right-handers in Cleveland’s Luis Ortiz (3-7, 4.26 ERA) and Seattle’s Emerson Hancock (2-2, 5.04).
Ortiz suffered a 7-4 loss Monday against visiting Cincinnati, giving up four runs on nine hits over 4 2/3 innings. He’s 0-0 with a 5.40 ERA in one start against Seattle.
Hancock hasn’t received a decision in his past three starts despite allowing five runs on 10 hits over 16 innings in that span. The former first-round pick is 1-0 with a 5.06 ERA in one previous start against the Guardians.
–Field Level Media
