A commemorative baseball tucked away in one corner in his new locker, Kade Anderson exited the home clubhouse and walked back out to the T-Mobile Park field to create a few more memories.
Still in full uniform three hours after making his major-league debut – crisp white pants and a white jersey with No. 13 on the back – the touted 22-year-old left-hander was back out to pose for pictures with family and friends after the Mariners’ 5-4 walkoff victory over the Chicago Cubs.
“Walking through the doors today was special,” Anderson said. “I’m glad I got to come in (Friday), kind of get my feet wet a little bit. Today (was) not by any means a normal day, but it felt a little more comfortable, and it was just a blast out there.
“And the way the game finished truly was really cool.”
It’s been a whirlwind 48 hours for Anderson.
He’d learned of his much-anticipated major-league call-up while in Double-A Arkansas in Thursday, arrived in Seattle on Friday afternoon, and on Saturday was taking the mound to start against MLB’s best offense before a sold-out crowd and a nationally televised audience.
A soft landing, it was not.
“The team was counting on me for a big game today,” Anderson said. “These games matter, especially when the season is getting shorter and shorter. These games matter. I understood that going in. Obviously, it’s a big day for me, but it’s an even bigger day for this (organization). So just go out there and give the team a chance to win is all that matters.”
Anderson pitched into the sixth inning, allowing three runs on five hits with two walks and five strikeouts, then joined the celebration at home plate after Randy Arozarena’s two-run home run capped an improbable three-run rally with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
It was Arozarena’s second homer of the game, and he had also scaled the wall in left field to rob Miguel Amaya of a home run in the third inning.
Anderson tipped his cap to thank his new left fielder.
“I thought it was way gone off the bat,” Anderson said.
In a late-afternoon game that featured a dark shadow line between the mound and the plate, Anderson recorded his first strikeout on a changeup that Alex Bregman missed for the final out of the first inning.
Anderson got to keep that baseball to commemorate his first big-league punchout. Bregman was the Astros’ No. 2 overall pick out of LSU in 2015; Anderson was the Mariners’ No. 3 overall pick out of LSU a decade later.
“He’s someone I’ve admired for a long time,” Anderson said. “So that was pretty cool. But he obviously got me back later.”
The Cubs scored their first run off Anderson on a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning, tying the score at 1-1.
At 72 pitches, Anderson was given the opportunity to go back out for the sixth inning. In 18 starts during a dazzling summer in Double-A, Anderson had averaged about 5⅓ innings per start and had never thrown more than 80 pitches.
Anderson benefited from a poor baserunning decision from Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong, who ran into a 5-3-4 double play that appeared to shift momentum back to the Mariners.
Instead, Bregman, the old nemesis, ambushed the very next pitch from Anderson – a changeup over the middle – and launched it out to center field, his third homer in two games this series, tying the score at 2-2.
Anderson, now at 80 pitches, still remained in the game – and then served up a first-pitch homer to Michael Busch, who belted an elevated slider out to right-center to give the Cubs a 3-2 lead.
At that point, M’s manager Dan Wilson then came out to remove Anderson, who despite the rough finish was greeted with a standing ovation from the crowd of 45,681.
“Obviously, a little frustrated with the last two pitches that I threw,” he said.
Wilson said he wanted to give Anderson a chance to complete the sixth inning.
“It didn’t go that way,” Wilson said, “but I think he takes a lot of positives away from today.”
