Fun first for Mariners, but shaky finish. Seattle avoids sweep in Anaheim
Item of utmost importance: have some fun again.
That’s what Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais stressed before Sunday’s game. Maybe amid the Mariners’ run to the fourth-best record in the major leagues they lost track of a bit of the team identity that got them here in the first place.
“We need to get back to having fun and being light-hearted,” Servais told reporters. “I think guys are grinding a little bit.
“Playing light, keeping it loose – that’s when we’re at our best.”
The first inning of what turned into an 8-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels in this Sunday matinee at Angel Stadium looked like a lot of fun for the Mariners – even if this one started to get a little hairy late until Alex Colome and Edwin Diaz shut the Angels down.
In the first inning, though, the Mariners (62-43) scored seven runs, had six hits, drew two walks, saw Dee Gordon steal a base, Denard Span and Mike Zunino rip doubles and after they batted through the lineup, Angels starter Felix Pena was pulled after getting only one batter out. If you’re wondering – that’s a 189.02 ERA.
So, yeah, this was not a great series for pitchers named Felix.
The Mariners lost two of three games for the series, but they still moved two games ahead of the Oakland Athletics and pulled to within four of the Houston Astros in the American League West.
Despite the Mariners being 9-12 in July, they’re still not only holding a playoff spot if the season ended today, but the Astros are in striking distance after they were swept this weekend by the Rangers, and the A’s were swept by the Rockies.
The Mariners host the Astros beginning with Monday’s game at Safeco Field.
But what an opportunity this could have been, had the Mariners not lost in extra innings on Friday and endured Felix Hernandez’s, well, rough outing Saturday.
There certainly weren’t many good reasons for good vibes around the Mariners clubhouse Sunday morning. Not after Hernandez’s self-proclaimed embarrassing start on Saturday, not with the Mariners’ offense slumping through this month-long stretch, and not with Servais deciding to move Mitch Haniger down from third to fifth in the lineup because the first-time All-Star entered the day hitting .186 (11-for-59) in July.
“Let’s just have fun today,” Servais said he told the team before the game. “Let’s go back to doing what we do.
“Really, coming into the clubhouse we needed to be relaxed and have fun. Put a smile on your face and go play. We’re really good when we go do that.”
They got to it from the first pitch.
Gordon led off with a single on the first pitch of the game, stole second base and Jean Segura drove him home with a single – after just four pitches from Pena.
Servais had plugged Span in to bat third in the lineup because Span’s plate approach makes him valuable at just about any spot in the order. And Span hit a double in his first at-bat that just got under the glove of sliding left-fielder Justin Upton.
Nelson Cruz singled in Span to make it 3-0, Mariners. Mitch Haniger walked, so did Ryon Healy and Ben Gamel followed with an RBI single for a 4-0 lead.
Pena’s wild pitch let Haniger score and Zunino emptied the bases with a hard double down the left-field line for a 7-0 Mariners lead – and there was still only one out.
So Angels manager Mike Scioscia walked out pull his starter with Gordon coming back up to the plate.
“We’ve been due for one of those,” Servais said. “I said it to (bench coach Manny Acta) last night – ‘When are we going to jump out and put up a seven or eight spot on somebody?’ And we did today.
“Good at-bats … we needed to get this ball game and we need to keep the offense going when we get back home.”
The Mariners didn’t get another run in the inning, but damage was done. Key to wins all season is them scoring at least four runs and now they are 44-13 in such games. They had scored three runs or fewer in 13 of 20 games this month.
They were averaging 3.25 runs per game this month after averaging at least 4.07 in each of the previous three months, including 4.74 in March/April.
“When we’re playing extremely well that’s what we’re doing – you don’t know who is going to do it for you any given day,” said Zunino, who went 5-for-11 this series. “You know someone is going to step up for us. When we can have that from top to bottom, it’s a tough lineup to pitch to.”
The Angels roared back in the seventh inning.
Nick Vincent replaced Marco Gonzales, who allowed two runs in six innings for his 12th quality start of the season, tied with James Paxton and Mike Leake for most on the team. But Justin Upton and Albert Pujols had back-to-back RBI singles off Vincent before Andrelton Simmons charged his 87-mph cutter over the wall in left-field.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bring it back! <a href="https://t.co/sEVfJZrwpm">pic.twitter.com/sEVfJZrwpm</a></p>— MLB (@MLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1023706545886965761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Would have been a three-run home run. Except Span made an incredible play running back and leaping to bring it back. Simmons got a sacrifice fly out of it to cut the Mariners’ lead to 8-5, but it could have been a bit worse.
“I knew I had a beat on it,” Span said. “It’s like a fifth sense we have in the outfield. You know the wall is getting close, you have that in your peripheral, but you keep your eye on the ball and I kept my eye on the ball.”
Gordon made sure to step in.
“That young boy got hops, though,” he laughed. “And stealing bases again? Like he’s 25.”
After Juan Nicasio got the final batter of the seventh, Alex Colome go through the eighth, even though Ryon Healy and Mike Zunino almost didn’t after colliding into each other for a pop up in foul territory. They both stayed down for a few moments before getting up.
The next pitch was also a pop up in the infield that Healy pumped his chest emphatically to call for. No other Mariner was within seemingly 100 feet of him. He caught it for the final out and flipped the ball to Zunino with a smirk.
Diaz closed out the ninth for his major-league leading 39th save. Gordon, Span and Gamel had three hits each.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"> saves for number .<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TrueToTheBlue?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TrueToTheBlue</a> <a href="https://t.co/F1yIdvJyDW">pic.twitter.com/F1yIdvJyDW</a></p>— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mariners/status/1023725729131851777?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“Colome and Diaz do what they do – I would like to think they are the best back-end bullpen duo in the league,” Servais said. “They’ve been outstanding for us, certainly lately Colome has thrown the ball great.”
This story was originally published July 29, 2018 at 4:41 PM.