That's baseball ... no luck for James Paxton, but plenty for Wade LeBlanc in Mariners series-clincher

That’s as baseball of a baseball thing there is.

James Paxton struck out 16 batters and didn’t allow a run in seven innings … only for the Seattle Mariners to lose on Wednesday night.

Then they face essentially unhittable Oakland Athletics starter Sean Manaea, the reigning American League pitcher of the month who threw a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox two starts ago. While their pitcher, Wade LeBlanc, hadn’t started a game since 2016.

And, of course, the Mariners won.

Robinson Cano drove in a pair of runs with a pair of RBI singles and Nelson Cruz scored two more on his two-run home run in the Mariners’ 4-1 win over the Athletics at Safeco Field to take the series.

“That’s baseball,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “The matchups and how it’s supposed to go – very seldom goes that way.

“But you find a way to bounce back and I knew our guys would bounce back tonight.”

The Mariners (18-12) have only lost one series this season – and that was against the reigning World Series-champion Houston Astros.

Now they get the rolling Los Angeles Angels for a three game series Friday-Sunday, and maybe their first look at what could have been in Shohei Ohtani, who signed with the Angels out of Japan this offseason, though the Mariners were a finalist.

And in one of the more unique moves in baseball history, Ichiro Suzuki went from starting against the Athletics on Wednesday to off their roster and serving as member of their front office on Thursday.

Dee Gordon led off the game with Ichiro’s signature bat hold, where Ichiro extends his bat-hand toward the pitcher before settling into his stance.

“Yeah, and then I almost got hit,” Gordon said. “That was pretty funny.”

And Gordon followed with a base hit, then stole second (his first of two steals in the game, pushing his season total to an American League-leading 14) and later scored from third on Cano’s single to left.

Gordon is as close with Ichiro as any player on the team dating back to the past few seasons with the Miami Marlins together.

“I still don’t know much of what to say about it,” Gordon said. “I’ve never seen this situation before. The only thing I can say is I’m happy if he’s happy. As long as he’s happy, that’s all that matters to me.”

Gordon doubled his next at-bat in the bottom of the third inning before Cano scored him with another single.

Gordon raked this series, going 10-for-14 with four stolen bases, including his 5-for-5 game on Tuesday. He’s the first player since Ichiro and Raul Ibanez in 2004 to have 10 hits in a single series.

He didn’t want to talk about his own performance, but Servais was more than happy to.

“Dee Gordon – unbelievable at the top of the lineup,” Servais said. “Getting on base, a couple of stolen bases and really sets the table for guys.

“Everybody talks about the power in the game right now and where everything is headed, but there’s still a spot for that guy.”

Cruz followed with his seventh home run of the season, a 426-foot shot over the center-field wall for the 4-0 cushion.

Manaea had allowed just one earned run over 23 innings in his past three starts before surrendering the four runs in three innings to the Mariners on Thursday.

But how about LeBlanc?

He hadn’t started a game since 2016 when he was last with the Mariners. He spent all of last year out of the bullpen for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Mariners signed him in spring training after David Phelps was diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament. LeBlanc started in place of Erasmo Ramirez, who will miss at least a month with a right Teres Major strain.

The 33-year-old LeBlanc pitched four innings, allowed no runs and three hits with three strikeouts.

“I kind of ran out of gas there,” LeBlanc said. “But I told (Seravis) if he needed another inning I had one for him. He told me that was about all he could ask for.”

Small sample size, but of all the Mariners starters, LeBlanc’s 3.57 ERA is the lowest on staff.

“LeBlanc gave us what he had,” Servais said. “He’s been around. He knows and you could kind of see it the last 8-10 pitches – the tank was empty.”

Three takeaways:

Pen is mighty

The Mariners turned to Chasen Bradford after pulling LeBlanc after four innings. LeBlanc threw 29 pitches in the fourth, pushing his total to 70 pitches. The Mariners planned to keep him around 75.

Stephen Piscotty followed by sending the first of Bradford’s pitches over the center-field wall for a solo home run.

But not much after that.

The Mariners got a lock-down, bounce-back effort from their bullpen, with Bradford, James Pazos, Juan Nicasio and Edwin Diaz combining to allow that one run over the final five innings.

Any doubt his bullpen would bounce back, especially Nicasio and Diaz?

“Not at all,” Servais said. “I went up to them in the outfield like I always do every day, checking in on them. And you could tell right away they both wanted it in the game tonight. They were ready from the get-go.”

Their bullpen was 13-0 when inheriting a lead before Wednesday, when Paxton’s dominant effort was squandered with the Athletics scoring three runs the final two innings against Nicasio and Diaz – two of the best relievers in the major leagues over the first month.

The Mariners had been one of four teams alongside the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians, to have their bullpen protect every lead it inherited entering Wednesday.

Bradford earned the win with his third multi-inning outing in relief this season. He had five two-plus inning outings all of last season.

“You know, I like it,” Bradford laughed. “It’s something different. Push yourself. It’s easy though when you don’t have to throw too many pitches to guys. (Jed) Lowrie kind of gave me a run for my money there. That was kind of annoying. But, you know, it happens.

“You kind of see the writing on the wall when you have guys like Juan, Eddy and (Nick Vincent) in the back of the bullpen. I know I’m probably not going to be pitching there. So I’m here to do whatever they need me to do – multi-innings is fine for me.”

Lefty love

Servais said he challenged Robinson Cano before the game.

“And I got his attention,” Servais said. “He usually responds to the challenge.”

Cano had two hits against tough dealer to left-handers in Athletics left-handed starter Sean Maneaa.

As dominant as Manaea had been against everybody in the first month of the season, he especially gave left-handed hitters nightmares. He was the most dominant pitcher in the league, coming off the American League pitcher of the month award, and he threw a no-hitter against the red-hot Boston Red Sox.

Manaea had allowed one run and five hits (.122 batting average) against left-handed hitters in his six starts entering Thursday.

Then Dee Gordon and Cano, both left-handed hitters, combined for four hits in the first two innings against him, with Cano hitting Gordon home both times.

“Manaea is off to a really good start and we got just enough off of him tonight,” Servais said.

Gordon finished 3-for-4 – that’s his third three-hit game in his past four games. He’s 16-for-23 (.696) his past five games with four stolen bases.

So that offseason trade with the Miami Marlins is working out fairly well.

And Nelson Cruz’s two-run home run was the cherry the Mariners needed. It traveled 426 feet and pushed Seattle to a 4-0 lead in the third inning.

Manaea hadn’t allowed more than two runs in any start. And his past 23 innings over his past three starts Manaea had allowed just one earned run.

Great Wade

LeBlanc ran into some trouble with his command in the fourth inning. Jed Lowrie singled, he walked Khris Davis and then trailed 3-1 to Matt Chapman.

He was really regretting those 30 warm-up pitches in the bullpen before the game.

“You get so used to pitching out of the bullpen with no heads up and no build up and no long toss before the game and then today I threw about 30 pitches in the bullpen to warm up for the game,” LeBlanc said. “You don’t take into account what kind of toll those can take on you until the end of your outing, which I kind of felt in the fourth inning.”

But he got Chapman to send a fly ball to the warning track in left field, with Guillermo Heredia under it for the second out. Then he tied up Matt Olson, recovered the ground ball back to him and exited the fourth inning without damage, despite throwing 29 pitches that frame.

“Just had to take a deep breath and understand that you’re not going to get an out if you don’t throw a strike,” LeBlanc said. “So you have to make an adjustment with as much conviction as you can find.”

LeBlanc’s final line: four innings, three hits, no runs and three strikeouts. It wasn’t a James Paxton-like outing with 16 strikeouts and no runs in seven innings, but still effective, even if LeBlanc’s fastball traveled about 13 mph slower than Paxton’s did on Wednesday.

And not bad for not starting a game in two years.

Play of the game

Nelson Cruz’s two-run home run took the life out of the Athletics’ sails when he sent a shot 426 feet over the center-field wall against Sean Manaea in the third inning. It gave the Mariners a 4-0 lead.

Top pitcher

Couldn’t ask much more out of left-hander Wade LeBlanc, who allowed three hits in four innings in his first start since 2016, when he was last with the Mariners. Though he lost his command in the fourth when he said he started to run out of gas.

Though, Chasen Bradford earned the win with 2 1/3 innings of relief. And Edwin Diaz earned his major-league leading 13th save.

Top hitter

Dee Gordon had 10 hits this series, going 3-for-4 on Thursday after a 5-for-5 performance on Tuesday and two hits on Wednesday.

He also stole two bases and scored two runs. The Mariners are 17-7 when Gordon has at least one hit in a game.

Quotable

Juan Nicasio looked like he was pitching angry in the eighth inning, Mariners manager Scott Servais said.

Nicasio had averaged about 93-mph on his fastball entering the game. And he turned that up to 97 mph to strike out the side in the eighth inning on Thursday after allowing the game-tying home run to Jed Lowrie on Wednesday.

“He told me today when we were playing catch that if I don’t throw 97 today, I will retire,” Edwin Diaz said. “And he threw it in the game and I told him, ‘You can’t retire now.’ He told me yesterday that they got lucky against him.”

This story was originally published May 3, 2018 at 9:41 PM with the headline "That's baseball ... no luck for James Paxton, but plenty for Wade LeBlanc in Mariners series-clincher."