Marvelous Marco. Lefty pitches first complete game, lifts Mariners to fifth consecutive win
Marco Gonzales walked off the mound following the fifth inning, his bottom lip appearing slightly protruded, eyes in a stiff stare on his way back toward the Seattle Mariners’ dugout. He had struck out two of the three batters he faced in the frame and all signs pointed toward career-night potential.
Oh, how it was.
Gonzales had never pitched more than six innings in a game for his career until this season, and that hadn’t happened since he was a 22-year-old four seasons ago with the St. Louis Cardinals.
This game was unbelievable on a couple levels, including Mike Zunino almost scorching a baseball entirely out of Safeco Field on a fifth-inning home run.
But this was all Gonzales, who about sprinted out of the dugout in the ninth inning and shortly after pitched his first complete game.
Gonzales was one out away from the shut out, but settled for the CG after Mike Moustakas’ run-scoring single following Adalberto Mondesi’s leadoff double. Gonzales allowed six hits, that one run with two outs in the ninth and the Mariners won their fifth consecutive game, this one 4-1 against the Kansas City Royals on Friday at Safeco Field.
“I take it back to the series we just played in Baltimore,” Gonzales said. “Everyone was kind of giving me crap because it was my vacation. I didn’t pitch there. So watching our guys sweep and just kind of roll through that one I was like, ‘Well, I need to do something.’ I showed up today and I definitely had some attitude."
Plus, he had lasted just 2 1/3 innings his last start against the Royals, allowing four runs in 64 pitches in a 10-0 loss in Kansas City on April 3. He put this nine-inning outing together on 96 pitches (71 strikes).
That should tell you how different of a team the Mariners are now compare to then.
“I was looking for some payback,” Gonzales said. “I was a little more amped than usual.”
The Mariners (52-31) have since erased that five-game losing streak they endured last week in a stretch against the Yankees and Red Sox. They also gained ground on the Astros, now 2.5 games back in the American League West after Houston lost earlier in the day to the Tampa Bay Rays.
This was the third time Gonzales has pitched at least seven innings this season and the eighth time he’s pitched at least six innings. Remember – he hadn’t pitched more than six innings in a game in any other point in his major league career before this season.
He previously tossed 7 1/3 innings on June 8 against the Rays.
Gonzales has shined at times this year since the Mariners acquired him last season in a trade that sent outfield prospect Tyler O’Neill to the St. Louis Cardinals. But this was his shining moment to date.
This next section is devoted to Mike Zunino – destroyer of baseball.
He faced a 2-2 count in the bottom of the fifth inning and on the eighth pitch of the at-bat Zunino crushed. Way far. He sent the 93-mph fastball from Ian Kennedy into orbit and almost out of Safeco Field, landing in the second-to-last row of bleachers in the third deck past left field.
It was projected to have traveled 454 feet, which is the longest recorded home run Zunino’s had at Safeco Field since MLB’s Statcast began tracking in 2015. He hit a 470 foot home run and also a 463 one in Texas against the Rangers last season.
Zunino was wearing his green “TATERS” T-shirt at his locker after the game.
Was that bomb the definition of a tater?
“Yeah, I guess so,” he laughed.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We had the same reaction, <a href="https://twitter.com/ncboomstick23?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ncboomstick23</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Crushed?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Crushed</a> <a href="https://t.co/m5vKhhliih">pic.twitter.com/m5vKhhliih</a></p>— MLB (@MLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1012906145634111489?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 30, 2018</a></blockquote>
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“I don’t think Mike Zunino can hit a ball much farther than that,” Servais said. “Off the bat I thought it might have a chance to leave (the park). Even Edgar (Martinez) said he hasn’t seen too many go that far.”
Gonzales said he was in the clubhouse. He heard it.
“That thing still hasn’t landed,” Gonzales insisted. “I heard it off the bat and it still hadn’t landed by the time I got outside.”
For comparison, Yankees slugger Aaron Judge launched a home run to that level and almost out of the park against Andrew Moore last season, and that was projected to have traveled 440 feet. Daniel Vogelbach’s bomb off of the Hit It Here Café past right field on April 15 this season was projected at 433 feet.
Oh, and it gave the Mariners a 3-0 lead.
That was Zunino’s 12 homer of the season and before that he had two hits in his previous 28 at-bats (.071 average). But that home run flashed his obvious power.
Though, he is second in the major leagues among catchers with 12 home runs this season, trailing only the Yankees’ Gary Sanchez.
“It’s coming along – it’s one of those where it’s taken longer than I’d like,” Zunino said. “But it’s starting to feel better. Hopefully it’s a good sign of things to come.”
That one came after Mitch Haniger’s jolt in the fourth inning, hitting a two-run homer over the center field wall 400 feet for a 2-0 Mariners lead. It was Haniger’s 17th home run this season, surpassing the 16 he hit all of his rookie season last year.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">¡BOOM! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jonronazo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Jonronazo</a> de dos carreras de <a href="https://twitter.com/M_Hanny17?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@M_Hanny17</a> nos da la ventaja en la 4ta entrada. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LosMarineros?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LosMarineros</a> 2, Reales 0<br>Minuto a minuto: <a href="https://t.co/qbZGWSoefx">https://t.co/qbZGWSoefx</a> <a href="https://t.co/3yeK2lvyF1">pic.twitter.com/3yeK2lvyF1</a></p>— Marineros de Seattle (@LosMarineros) <a href="https://twitter.com/LosMarineros/status/1012897243341484033?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 30, 2018</a></blockquote>
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But the Mariners didn’t contribute much else offensively. Zunino and Haniger’s homers combined with Jean Segura’s infield single with one out in that fourth were the Mariners’ only hits against Royals starter Ian Kennedy, who entered the game with a 5.09 ERA and 1-7 record.
Guillermo Heredia and Dee Gordon drew back-to-back two-out walks in the seventh inning against former Mariner Brandon Maurer and Segura followed with a run-scoring single to left for a 4-0 Mariners cushion.
But with the way Gonzales was dealing, that was enough.
“He’s matured – no question,” Servais said. “And I think along the way, it always works better when guys earn it. He had a lot of confidence right now because everything that’s happened to him this year he’s earned. From coming into spring training, winning a spot in our rotation, then continues to build throughout the season here – we’re going to get to the point in the season when he gets into uncharted territory as far as innings go. It’s something we’ve talkeda bout already as we come out of the All-Star break and we got a chance to give our guys a little bit of a breather. He’s one of the guys we’ll have to keep an eye on because he’s going to be really valuable for us down the stretch.”
Some takeaways:
Magnificent Marco … and scouting
First career complete game.
Marco Gonzales received a Gatorade bath courtesy of Jean Segura in the Mariners’ dugout afterward. His previous season-high was 7 1/3 innings – set earlier this month in Tampa Bay against the Rays.
This came after Gonzales pitched four scoreless innings in Boston and had allowed one hit, before the Red Sox scored three runs on him in the fifth and two more in the sixth. Gonzales stopped short of making an accusation against the Red Sox, but did hint at they were stealing signs in that game.
The Royals weren’t stealing anything from him in this one.
He retired the minimum through the first three innings. Whit Merrifield led off the game with a single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, but then Gonzales pivoted and fired off the mound to pick him off.
“And he handled a bunt flawlessly on the play before,” Servais said. “Marco is a really good athlete and you saw it in the first inning.
“But when things like that happen, I don’t think fans understand what goes on behind it. That’s advanced scouting, that’s our people looking out ahead of series and giving us the keys before the game. All the meetings and talking and prep work we do pays off. I don’t think those guys get enough credit. You have to have the guys on the field to execute it, no doubt, but it was the total package tonight.”
Mitch Mash
Mitch Haniger’s 17th home run of the season finally puts some runs on the scoreboard – coming in the fourth inning.
Now he has more home runs than he hit all of last season and he has 61 RBI – the second-most in the major leagues this season behind the Red Sox’s J.D. Martinez.
Haniger shot it over the center field wall, a fastball in the middle of the plate. Though he’s had some balls die in that part of the par, as well.
“I was hoping it would get out,” he said. “I’ve hit some balls well that haven’t gone out, so there’s always a little bit of doubt. But fortunately it did.”
The Mariners are just over the halfway point in their season and Haniger already has 61 season RBI.
“I think he’s going to be one of the leaders in that category all season,” Servais said. “Having a great season and it’s been fun to watch. Fun to see how it plays out with him in the second half as well.”
Play of the game
Marco Gonzales was one out away from the shutout performance against a team that shelled him back in April in Kansas City in a 10-0 Royals win.
The Royals had Adalberto Mondesi at second base with two outs and Gonzales thought he got a ground ball out to second base. But the Mariners had shifted and the ball got through for a run-scoring single, cutting the Mariners lead to 4-1.
“I don’t know,” Gonzales said in angst, when asked about going for the shutout. He clearly wanted it. “Just one of those things where the ball comes off the bat and you’re thinking ground ball and you look up and they’re shifted and it gets through. So then you go from that to, ‘OK, I got to get the next guy. I still got one more out.”
Gonzales got Salvador Perez to send a ground ball to Segura at shortstop for the force out at second base and the final out of the game.
Top batter
Home runs don’t travel much farther at Safeco Field than the one Mike Zunino crushed.
It landed in the upper deck past left field, a no-doubter that traveled 454 feet – Zunino’s farthest home run at Safeco Field since Statcast began tracking in 2015.
It was a solo home run, but it gave the Mariners a 3-0 cushion in the seventh inning.
“Really good swing by Mike,” Servais said. “I know he continues to make adjustments and get his timing more consistent. Looked pretty good tonight.”
Top pitcher
Easy.
Marco Gonzales’s final line: nine innings pitched, six hits allowed, one run (with two outs in the ninth inning) and seven strikeouts – with no walks.
That’s how sharp his command was in this game, taking advantage of young, aggressive Royals hitters and keeping them off balance the whole night. He said they attacked with offspeed and breaking pitchers the first two times through and then switched to more fastballs.
“My stuff is better when I get ahead in the count,” Gonzales said. “I was putting my focus on staying aggressive and getting strike one and from there keeping them off balance and reading swing. The shifting game plan and confidence was the secret to tonight.”
He certainly had some big defensive plays behind him, notably from shortstop Jean Segura. Gonzales and James Paxton are the only Mariners pitchers to have tossed complete games this season.
Gonzales is 3-0 with a 2.07 ERA in his past six starts at Safeco Field and lowered his season ERA to 3.77 after rough results in New York against the Yankees and Boston against the Red Sox.
“He’s not going to blow you away with 95, but he’s got good movement on his pitches, mixing it up and living on the edges,” Servais said. “And he and Z work really well together.”
Quotable
Marco Gonzales credited Mike Zunino for his career night.
“We were on the same page all night,” he said. “I think I might have shook him off once and it was just to the other side of the plate.
“He’s phenomenal, and every one of our pitchers feels the same way. We all talk about how we love Z back there. Scouting hitters and getting to know us personally is the biggest thing.”
This story was originally published June 29, 2018 at 10:07 PM.