JP Crawford’s line drive down the third base line was not corralled as it skipped off of the glove of the third baseman which gave Dylan Moore more than enough time to scamper down the line to home for the game winning run. The 10-9 victory came after the bullpen had blown a 7-4 lead.

Luis Torrens had set-up Crawford a pitcher prior when he hit a single to score the ghost runner Jarred Kelenic to tie it at nine. A few pitches later Moore stole third which made it easy for him to score on the game winning single.

Texas had taken a lead in the 11th and the 10th, but their weak bullpen couldn’t hold on to it. Not that Seattle’s bullpen had performed any better on this chilly Thursday night in September as they had given up five of the Rangers’ nine runs; meanwhile Texas’s bullpen had given up four of Seattle’s 10. Paul Sewald was the one who blew the three-run lead that starter Marco Gonzales had left his squad.

Fortunately the offense was able to bail him out for the first time in the middle of this skid.

While we could dig into the numbers and the story of this game, instead I want to take a moment Jarred Kelenic. For a 23 year old who’s been psychoanalyzed to death, since he’s come up in the wake of Julio Rodriguez’s injury he’s been absolutely nails. And tonight he hit a key home run to make it 7-4 to lead off the sixth, but it was his least impressive dinger of the night. That belongs to the first one he hit in the fourth with one on.

Manager Scott Servais made the point that you don’t see many lefties do that in at T-Mobile Park…and he’s right. It’s hard enough for righties to hit it out of this ballpark, but for a leftie to do that off the end of the bat? That takes a metric fuckton of talent, which we’ve always known he has possessed.

Mitch Haniger also hit a pair of dingers, both were two run shots, and the fact that both of those guys played such a key part in the win is a good field story. It’s a shame the bullpen wasn’t able to hang onto that lead that those two had built through out the game…but it’s also hard to be too mad when the offense found a way to win the game.

I do want to, quickly, give a shout out to Gonzales. Despite the fact that he gave up a pair of dingers, he ground through five innings and at times looked out right dominant against a line-up that has given him fits at times this year.

Baltimore’s loss to Boston Thursday afternoon had dropped the magic number down to two, Seattle’s win later that night knocked it down to one. The O’s take on New York tomorrow at 10:00 AM; if they lose, the M’s clinch before first pitch…but if Baltimore wins, the Mariners clinch with a win against Oakland.

It’s getting real, folks.

The magic number…

More from Sports with Neil and friends

• 
  Teachable moments abound as WSU blows out CSU
• 
  Cougar volleyball rebounds with a sweep of Utah
• 
  It’s been a hell of a ride
• 
  WSU soccer frustrated in draw with Oregon
• 
  Podcast: Yordan…please, stop
• 
  The Spiel: Servais’s poor decisions led to a historic homer