Fill-ins fantastic for Mariners, so were Dee Gordon, Marco Gonzales
The Seattle Mariners’ lineup looked much different by 7:10 p.m. Thursday than manager Scott Servais envisioned when he woke up that morning.
No Mitch Haniger, so Guillermo Heredia was in center field. No Mike Zunino, so Chris Herrmann latched on his catcher’s gear.
Heredia followed with two doubles with an RBI and run scored and Chris Herrmann hit his first home run of the season and first in a Mariners uniform.
So that worked out.
Then Dee Gordon saved them late with a triple and flashed the gold on his glove to save at least one run in the eighth inning and the Mariners took the three-game series with a 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday at Safeco Field.
“Those guys maybe not the headline guys everybody is excited about,” Servais said of Heredia and Herrmann. “But that’s what makes this team good. Everybody contributes, everybody shows up every night and we got a second baseman – what a play. That should be on a few highlight reels.”
And Edwin Diaz closed the game in the ninth for his major-league leading 34th save of the season … and the date was July 5. He had 34 saves all of the 2017 season – which was tied for fourth-most in the American League.
Seattle (56-32) hopped right back on a new win streak after their season-high eight-game one was snapped a day earlier, though they remain 1.5 games back of the Houston Astros in the American League West.
Back to that play Gordon made.
“It looked like Superman was flying through the outfield and somehow magically the ball landed in his glove,” Herrmann said – so eloquently.
Ian Kinsler lined one of Alex Colome’s fastballs on the other side of second base from Gordon for what seemed like a sure run-scoring hit.
Only Gordon used every bit of his blazing speed, every bit of his extension when he dived and somehow snared the ball in his glove for the final out of the inning.
“I saw the ball go over the middle and I was able to make the play,” Gordon said, seeming unenthused. “Just trying to get in the dugout as quick as possible."
That came one frame after he hit the most in-the-bag triple there could be, easily standing up at third base after he hit a line drive into the right-field corner. That’s why they call the former Gold Glove second baseman, who started the season in center field for the first time in his career, Flash.
“With that play he proved he belongs at second base,” Herrmann said. “It’s fun to watch people make plays like that. What a play by Dee. That changed the game.”
So, yeah, things are going to get real interesting in that clubhouse once two-time Gold Glove second baseman Robinson Cano returns from his 80-game drug suspension next month.
The Mariners got to that eighth inning with a three-run lead much because of what Marco Gonzales pulled out of his hat.
The former Gonzaga University left-hander was not near as sharp with his fastball nor changeup in this start as he was six days earlier at Safeco Field, when the 26-year-old pitched his first complete game.
But mark this as evidence of Gonzales’ maturity as a pitcher, that he still pitched six innings and allowed one run despite facing heavy traffic in the first four innings.
“It starts with our starting pitcher tonight – Marco was outstanding,” Servais said, not talking about Gonzales’ pitches, but his competitiveness.
“He goes out in the first inning and he did not have it. He really didn’t. I’ve been around this for a long time. You see pitchers with six or seven years of experience in that situation who panic. They just don’t have it and they throw in the towel. It’s says a lot about his maturity and where he’s at.
“We were hoping he would maybe get five (innings) and I thought the fifth and sixth innings might have been his best.”
Gonzales escaped bases loaded in the first inning with a double play ball, then two runners on in the second inning and Mike Trout’s double in the third before Kole Calhoun’s sacrifice fly gave the Angels their first run in the fourth inning. But Gonzales retired the final eight batters he faced to get through the sixth inning for the fourth consecutive game he’s pitched.
This one just required 102 pitches in six innings after he threw 96 in nine innings last week.
Gonzales was asked about how he worked through those early struggles despite clearly pitching without all his weapons (though, he did strike out Mike Trout twice and Alex Colome struck him out another time in the eighth).
“I haven’t always been that pitcher – and, frankly, having a new approach this year has been a huge help with that,” said Gonzales, the former four-time state-champion pitcher at Rocky Mountain High School in Colorado before his All-American career at Gonzaga.
“The old me would have probably made it through three tonight and maybe called it a game and get taken out. I’m very fortunate to be making strides in the right direction in that sense and just figuring out how to battle in those situations when you know you don’t have your best stuff.”
Heredia wasn’t supposed to be starting this game. He only ended up in center field for the Mariners because Mitch Haniger was scratched from the lineup about an hour and a half before first pitch because of a bruised knee.
Then Heredia ended up being in the middle of all the Mariners’ scoring, despite entering the game batting .150 over his past 30 games.
He lined a double down the left field line in the third inning for the Mariners’ first hit and scored their first run on Dee Gordon’s ensuing single.
Heredia lined a double to the wall in the fifth inning over Angels left fielder Justin Upton’s head for another double, with Ben Gamel charging from first base to give the Mariners a 2-1 lead.
“I knew I wasn’t in the lineup today but when I come to the field I come ready to play,” Heredia said through interpreter, Nasusel Cabrera. “I know anything can happen.”
Heredia got his. Time for Herrmann.
Herrmann started because Mike Zunino headed to the 10-day disabled list earlier in the day because of a bone bruise in his ankle. So Herrmann then hit his first home run as a member of the Seattle Mariners, launching a solo home run over the right-field wall in the bottom of the seventh inning.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">First home run in a Mariners uniform: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrueToTheBlue?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TrueToTheBlue</a> <a href="https://t.co/DEkH9tAtxj">pic.twitter.com/DEkH9tAtxj</a></p>— Mariners (@Mariners) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mariners/status/1015124436188651520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 6, 2018</a></blockquote>
That was Herrmann’s first home run since Sept. 24 when he was playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He hit 10 homers last season.
“I think Denard Span said, ‘Man, you were smiling before you even hit first base,” Herrmann laughed. “It’s been a crazy year. I just had a baby last year, which was awesome, and then I get DFA’d with two days left of camp thinking I was going to make the team … I was sitting on my couch for three weeks wondering if I’m going to play this year. I’m very thankful for the opportunity Seattle has given me, even if I had to start in Triple-A. I don’t care. Just wanted to play baseball and show people I can play. I’m here.”
Some takeaways:
Dee-Fence
Remember when Dee Gordon was the Mariners’ center fielder?
Don’t forget that he won a Gold Glove for his work at second base with the Miami Marlins in 2015. He showed why when he dived, full extension, to snare Ian Kinsler’s line drive on the other side of second base with two on in the eighth inning.
That should have scored a run. Instead, Dee Gordon ended the inning.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Still incredible on video, but you had to see it live. Here's that Dee Gordon play: <a href="https://t.co/H0HHbPcD08">https://t.co/H0HHbPcD08</a></p>— TJ Cotterill (@TJCotterill) <a href="https://twitter.com/TJCotterill/status/1015104046477148160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 6, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Rocking like G
Guillermo Heredia was batting .293 with a .408 on-base percentage in the first 42 games of the season.
But in the past 30 games and little over a month of play, Heredia entered Thursday hitting .150 with a .216 on-base percentage.
His defense in center field still makes him a plus in the Mariners’ lineup, but Scott Servais said earlier in the day that they talked to Heredia about pulling the ball more to left field.
“He’s hitting the soft fly balls to right field is what frustrates him as well as Edgar (Martinez),” Servais said. “Guillermo is best when he’s pulling the ball and I don’t say that about many players. He’s one of them I would.”
So Heredia pulled the ball down the left-field line for a double in his first at-bat, the Mariners’ first hit, and then lined a hard liner over Angels left fielder Justin Upton’s head for an RBI double in the fifth inning to give the Mariners’ a 2-1 lead.
Escape artist
Marco Gonzales left the bases loaded in the first inning, two runners on in the second, Mike Trout roped a double off him in the third and the Angels scored on a sacrifice fly in the fourth.
Gonzales hasn’t seen that much traffic since he last drove on I-5 during rush hour.
Yet, there he was in the sixth inning, having allowed just the one run despite a lot of hard contact against him. Gonzales retired the final eight batters he faced one start after tossing his first complete game – when he was one out away from pitching a shutout.
But he needed 102 pitches in this one, after throwing 96 in nine innings last week against the Royals. This is the fourth consecutive start Gonzales has pitched at least six innings.
He talked about a pitch he added just this season, a cutter, after needing Tommy John surgery two years ago.
“The backdoor cutter has been a huge weapon for me,” Gonzales said. “Just believing in that pitch and not abandoning it to go back to my changeup all the time. I kind of stepped out on a ledge in the beginning of the year with it and just trying to keep it going.”
Quotable
Scott Servais was as impressed as anybody that Marco Gonzales found a way to pitch six innings in this game despite clearly pitching without his best fastball and changeup. It proved the 26-year-old has taken another step.
“Marco Gonzales has always been a guy – going back to high school this guy won four state championships being the guy,” Servais said. “He’s an All-American in college and first-round draft pick. He’s been really good for a long time. He had an injury (Tommy John surgery). Sometimes it takes a while to come back from that. He’s worked his tail off and that’s why he’s been able to stay out in those close games and give us a chance to win.”
TJ Cotterill: 253-597-8677; Twitter: @TJCotterill
This story was originally published July 5, 2018 at 10:32 PM.