SEATTLE -- Zach McKinstry came to bat against Seattle Mariners right-hander Carlos Vargas with two outs, the score tied and the winning run on second base in Saturday's 11th inning. A right-handed hitter, the free-swinging Javier Baez , loomed on deck, a much better matchup for Vargas than the left-handed-hitting McKinstry. The Mariners could have elected to intentionally walk him with first base open.
"We talked about it," Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. "Obviously, Vargy gets the ball on the ground, and that's what he does best, righty or lefty and, you know, he got the ball on the ground."
That grounder bounced four times before finding the outfield grass at T-Mobile Park, hit just hard enough to evade a diving J.P. Crawford , plate Spencer Torkelson and send the Detroi