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A ruined dinner, a game saved: Mariners reliever’s wild day ends in triumph

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BALTIMORE – Nick Davila may never get another bite of those soup dumplings. But he did manage to hang onto his first major league save.

The Seattle Mariners rookie capped a chaotic 24 hours with an even more unsettling 10th inning of work Tuesday, June 9 against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. Yet after a hit-by-pitch, a single, a harrowing putout at home upheld by replay review and a timely strikeout, Davila nailed down the Mariners’ 6-5, 10-inning win.

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It was a big moment in the 26-year-old right-hander’s career: He made his major league debut May 3 but hadn’t pitched for the big club since May 23 – nor was he expecting to do so this week.

Instead, a second anniversary dinner with his girlfriend, Morgan, was on tap, with a 7:30 PT reservation at Din Thai Phung at a mall in the Seattle-Tacoma area on Monday night.

Then he got a phone call: John Russell, his manager at Class AAA Tacoma, told him he was going to hop a red eye and meet the Mariners in Baltimore. Cooper Criswell, their trusty right-handed reliever, had a shoulder strain. An injured list stint might be possible. Davila was going to be summoned to the taxi squad.

He was under the impression his flight left Seattle-Tacoma Airport at 11:50 p.m. So as the food began rolling out around 7:45, he tried to enjoy the dinner.

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Instead, a phone call from Russell updated his itinerary: He was flying out at 10:20. Baseball gear needed to be fetched from Cheney Stadium, clothes from a nearby hotel.

“And I was like, 10:20?” Davila recalled. “I’m doing the mental gymnastics of it’s 30 minutes south, and I gotta grab my stuff in Tacoma.”

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It’s good to have friends: The Rainiers’ assistant clubhouse manager fetched his stuff from the ballpark and met him at Gate 30, Alaska Airlines. The clothes had to wait. And besides, Davila probably wouldn’t be pitching anyway, right?

That’s what he believed when he and infielder Miles Mastrobuoni landed in Baltimore early Tuesday morning, and he got to his room around 8 a.m., put the blinds up and tried to sleep. He still wasn’t added to the active roster by the time the final bus to Camden Yards left at 2:30 p.m.

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And then shortly before game time, Criswell was placed on the IL and he was activated. A gassed bullpen was already in disarray. And then Jose A. Ferrer, the closer for the night, blew a 4-2 lead in the ninth.

After Randy Arozarena smacked a go-ahead two-run homer in the top of the 10th, guess who was summoned to save it?

Yep.

“I just couldn’t believe I was in the game,” Davila said. “What? This is freaking nuts. I had goosebumps kind of going out there.

“I was like, ‘this is not real.'”

And with his first pitch, as Davila put it, “I plunked the dude.”

With the extra-inning auto runner, that put the tying runs on base – and Leody Taveras followed with an RBI single to make it 6-5. Nobody out.

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Davila reset.

“Every single pitch I was throwing I was just like, ‘You don’t want to be anywhere else, but right here, let’s execute this pitch to the best of your ability.'”

Good plan: Davila induced a groundout from Coby Mayo, and a grounder to third off Jeremiah Jackson’s bat. Blaze Alexander, the potential tying run, broke for home.

Patrick Wisdom fielded the ball and threw home, wide of the plate and out of Alexander’s path so catcher Mitch Garver could corral it and swipe the tag on Alexander just before the runner’s fingers crossed the plate – confirmed, barely, by replay.

One out away. Garver called a pair of sinkers, and Davila had Tyler O’Neill buried in an 0-2 count.

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“And I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m one pitch away,'” Davila said. “But then, you know, there’s so many guys that get one pitch away, and then they blow it. So I was like, ‘I can’t get too ahead of myself.’

“‘I gotta make sure I’m in the moment right here.'”

In it and up to it: O’Neill flailed at one more sinker. Davila and the Mariners escaped.

Nick Davila celebrates his first career save with Seattle Mariners catcher Mitch Garver at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

“Nick, to be able to slam the door and get us the W – after a red-eye flight, that’s not easy to do,” manager Dan Wilson said. “I don’t think we draw it up by hitting the first guy. But I thought Wis’ play was outstanding.

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“Another great job by Nick – and welcome back.”

Davila had a nice postgame spread to sate his hunger. But the lost dinner a night before still stung, Davila’s best-laid plans coldly stashed away before his eyes as he high-stepped it to Sea-Tac.

Especially the soup dumplings.

“I had one. They were so good,” Davila said. “And then our waitress had to just box it all up, and then I was like, ‘this stinks.’ And my girlfriend was crying.

“She was like, ‘This is so crazy. What is going on? Our two-year anniversary is ruined.’

“I was like, ‘I’ll make it up to you. We’ll figure it out.'”

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Davila showed Tuesday night he’s pretty good at that.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Nick Davila’s wild day ends with Mariners’ win vs Orioles

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