Pay the man. Wade LeBlanc shines on contract day and Mariners edge Angels for eighth consecutive win
Wade LeBlanc hasn’t spent too many of his 10 years in the major leagues with any sort of stability. Is he a starter? A reliever? Is he living in San Diego, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle or Pittsburgh?
He’s found his home now, one made of dirt in the middle of a diamond at Safeco Field.
“Man, to be honest, I thought my career was over after Japan,” LeBlanc said of his 2015 season overseas.
“We didn’t have a whole lot of hits and the agent I have now was able to scratch up some interest – and here we are. “
The native of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and graduate of the University of Alabama, signed a contract extension Tuesday that will keep him a Seattle Mariner through the 2019 season and potentially through 2022.
Then LeBlanc displayed why he’s so deserving of sticking in this rotation, retiring the final 11 batters he faced and improving to 4-0 in the Mariners’ 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday.
LeBlanc allowed three hits and pitched at least seven innings for the second time in his past four starts, including his 7 2/3 shutout innings against the Red Sox two weeks ago.
LeBlanc has probably been the most feel-good story of the Mariners season.
Not that this contract changes much.
“It’s definitely a lot of motivation because you want to make good on the contract and show the club that the faith was well placed,” LeBlanc said. “But at the same time I had a spot. It’s not like I didn’t have a spot on this ball club.
“If I focus on the wrong things then I’m not putting the time into my teammates and the staff and my job as a starting pitcher and that’s to keep the team in the game and give us a chance to win. That’s what I’ve been focusing on all year and what I’ll continue to focus on going forward.”
And this win pushed the Mariners’ win streak to a season-high eight games after Alex Colome and Edwin Diaz finished the Angels off in the final two innings, with Diaz earning his major-league leading 33rd save.
The Mariners (55-31) are a season-high 24 games over .500 and put even more separation between them and the spiraling Angels in the American League West, though they remain a half-game behind the Houston Astros.
How much fun are they having right now?
“It’s a family,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Thinking about it driving to the ball park today, you can’t wait to get there. You can’t wait for the guys to show up to see what’s going on in the clubhouse today and we go through our routines and meetings and get ready to play and it’s on. We find a way. It’s not always pretty but we certainly compete very well. Great group of guys. It’s been really fun and hopefully we keep riding it a little longer.”
The Mariners staked LeBlanc to a 3-0 cushion.
Jean Segura started it with a double before the bases loaded when Mitch Haniger and Nelson Cruz drew back-to-back walks.
Kyle Seager followed with a hit and two runners scored when right fielder Chris Young stumbled on the Safeco Field grass and tumbled to the ground. Seager charged into second base because of it, the Mariners took a 2-0 lead. Young soon after was helped off of the field.
Ryon Healy struck out, but the wild pitch got past Angels catcher Martin Maldonado. So Cruz cruised home, Healy was safe at first and the Mariners had a 3-0 lead.
But the Mariners’ offense didn’t get much more against Angels’ lefty Andrew Heaney. They had two hits, both singles, off him after that three-run first inning.
It was enought for LeBlanc, who is now secured through the 2019 season with a chance to earn up to $32 million with performance bonuses and cub options into the 2022 season
His one mistake — he left a cutter belt high for Andrelton Simmons, who obliged with a solo home run over the left field wall — gave the Angels their only run. LeBlanc then retired the next 11 batters he faced and struck out Shoei Ohtani on one of his trademark 87-mph fastballs in his final frame.
Los Angeles entered the game with 12 players on the disabled list, not including Ohtani, the two-way star from Japan who might not pitch the rest of the season because of a strained ulnar collateral ligament. But he was deemed to still be OK to hit and he was the Angels’ DH in his first game since June 4.
A few takeaways:
Spee Dee
Dee Gordon has provided speed the Mariners haven’t seen since before they traded Ichiro to the Yankees in 2012.
He singled to left field in the seventh. Then he advanced to second on a passed ball and then stole third base for his 300th stolen base of his career before the Safeco Field crowd gave him a standing ovation.
“Skip talks to me about it all the time,” Gordon said of getting the 300th steal.
“That was awesome, man. But it wasn’t about me. It was about Mitch getting ready to get a good pitch, and it’s pretty cool. But we’re just trying to win ball games.”
Gordon is third active player to swipe that many bases, joining Jose Reyes and Rajai Davis, and he’s now one of 166 players in major league history with that many.
Gordon leads the American League with 22 stolen bases. Jarrod Dyson led the Mariners with 28 stolen bases all of last season.
Gordon led the majors with 60 steals with the Marlins last season before the Mariners acquired him in an offseason trade. He also led the majors in steals in 2015 (58) and 2014 (64).
‘Greatest of our generation’
Mike Trout had crushed the Mariners in the previous six games he’d played in Seattle this season, batting .640 with a .700 on-base percentage and a 2.180 OPS.
Yes, 2.180, just slightly higher than the 2.129 OPS he has in three games against the Giants. It’s like he’s playing a video game.
Servais was asked before Tuesday’s game about whether Trout’s raking has been more about Mariners starters missing locations or Trout beating their game plans.
“He’s the greatest player of our generation,” Servais answered before pausing and staring. “It is what it is. He’s really, really good and our job is to beat the Angels. And Mike Trout is going to get some hits and impact the game. He’s an extremely talented player. Our job is to beat the Angels.”
LeBlanc faced him three times on Tuesday and got him out in each, a pair of ground outs and a fly out.
Colome intentionally walked him in the eighth inning with Kole Calhoun at third base with two outs. It worked; Colome got Justin Upton to fly out to end the inning.
Play of the game
Seager, who finished 2-for-4, sent a line drive into right field that should have been a single. Two runs scored on the bases-loaded play and Seager ended up with a double when Angels right fielder Young strained his hamstring and fell to the grass and he chased for the ball.
Top batter
Cruz hit his 22nd home run of the season with his solo home run into Edgar’s Cantina in the bottom of the eighth inning, finishing 1-for-3 with two runs scored.
But maybe the bigger play was drawing a walk in the first inning with runners at first and second. That set up Seager’s two-run double before Cruz later scored on a passed ball.
“The key to the ball game for us was the quality of at-bats we had,” Servais said. “The walks haven’t been our strength this year, but controlling the strike zone tonight when a guy is throwing like that, thank God we got the runs early because we did not do much after it.”
Top pitcher
LeBlanc lowered his ERA to 3.19, allowing one run with four strikeouts in seven innings pitched.
That was his second time in his past four starts pitching at least seven innings.
But the Angels' Heaney locked in after that first inning. He struck out 10 and didn’t allow a run after that three-run first. One of those runs actually scored when he struck out Healy.
Quotable
Cruz would lick his chops getting a chance to face 86-mph throwing LeBlanc.
“Any time you face a pitcher like that you hope to rake,” Cruz said. “But he’s just a good pitcher. He knows what to do out there. He keeps hitters off balance and he throws pitches on the edge of the zone. That’s the way to get it done.”
This story was originally published July 3, 2018 at 9:38 PM.