Kyle Seager back with Mariners after birth of healthy baby girl. ‘My wife is an absolute champ’

Welcome back, Kyle Seager.

And welcome to the world, Emelyn Seager.

The Seattle Mariners activated their third baseman off the paternity list ahead of their series opener against the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday. He spent the past three days out while his wife, Julie, gave birth to their baby girl.

He said Emelyn was born early Monday after they went to Swedish in Issaquah on Sunday night and they finally went home Tuesday.

“It went unbelievable,” Seager said. “Doctors and nurses were great, my wife is doing awesome. My wife is a champ. She did great. We got to go home and kind of settle in and she’s finally getting back into a little bit of a routine. My wife is an absolute champ.”

Players are allowed at most three days on paternity leave since that was added to major league baseball’s collective bargaining agreement in 2011.

This is Seager’s third child – he’s now outnumbered in his house, two guys to three gals – but this was his first child born during the season after his son, Crue, and oldest daughter, Remi, were born in the offseason.

“It’s not a ton of time off,” Seager said. “It’s kind of weird leaving today, to be honest. Weird leaving the baby … but it is what it is.”

But manager Scott Servais was happy to have him back and return to a more accustomed corner infield of Seager at third base and Ryon Healy, who missed Wednesday’s loss because of back stiffness, at first base. Healy’s late scratch on Wednesday meant Andrew Romine was at first base and Zach Vincej made his Mariners debut at third.

“We need them,” Servais said of Seager and Healy. “Hopefully we get this going.”

To add Seager, the Mariners optioned VIncej back to Triple-A Tacoma. Also, infielder Gordon Beckham was outrighted to Triple-A Tacoma after clearing waivers.

Right the ship

Servais said he woke up Thursday morning and counted the games remaining on the Mariners schedule.

“And I said, ’54. Let’s go,’” Servais said. “We need all the guys to understand where we’re at. We got 54 games to play.”

He paused for a few seconds.

“Fifty-four games,” he re-iterated. “I hope our guys can lock it in because I like our chances when we’re really focused and our energy is high and we’re competing our tails off. We’re really good when we do those things.”

Entering Thursday, the Mariners were tied with the Oakland Athletics for the American League’s second wild card. This past weekend Servais said the team is at its best when it’s playing loose.

“We’re always loose – you see it in the clubhouse with the music usually going, or they have a pool game going or messing around at each other’s lockers,” Servais said. “We have a pretty good group. Good people. Very diverse group of personalities that really mesh well together and that’s all great.

“It’s fun to be in the clubhouse and good around and make sure everybody is having fun, but it’s about competing on the field and finding out a way to beat the other guys, and we’re at a point right now where I think we got together way back in February and talked about getting in this position where we’re not just scrambling, we’re trying to claw our way into a playoff spot. We’ve been there a majority of the season because of the way we played early on. It hasn’t been so great lately.”

Canada’s own

You know how these home games against Toronto typically go – with just as many, if not more, Blue Jays fans than Mariners ones. They mark the series on their calendars before the season even begins.

But Canadian James Paxton said he’s hoping to win a few of them over to Mariners fans, especially after he tossed his first career no-hitter in Toronto on May 8.

He was born in Ladner, British Columbia, but he said he was more of a Mariners than Blue Jays fan growing up, and his family would take him and his brother to Seattle for games.

One he recalled was an extra-inning win over the Rangers on Sept. 16, 2002, because Ichiro had a walk-off walk, and he was a huge fan of Ichiro (now his sort-of teammate).

“We were up in the nose bleeds and it was getting late and my parents were saying we had to go home because my brother and I were still quite young,” Paxton said. “But we begged to stay and they let us and we sneaked down a little closer into the lower bowl to watch the game. It was the 11th inning and the bases were loaded for Ichior and my brother and I were chanting Ichiro’s name and he ended up getting a walk-off walk. We were super excited – and then we passed out in the car on the way home. It’s a great memory.”

Diabolical Diaz

Edwin Diaz, for the third time this season and fourth time in his career. was selected as the American League reliever of the month after his dominant July.

Diaz went 9-for-9 in save opportunities in July and didn’t allow a run over 10 innings. He entered Thursday with 40 saves, the fourth pitcher in Mariners history to have that many in a season.

On tap

Left-hander Marco Gonzales (12-5, 3.37 ERA) starts for the Mariners opposed by Blue Jays left-hander Ryan Borucki (0-2, 2.83 ERA) in game two of the four-game series at 7:10 p.m. Friday at Safeco Field. The game will broadcast on Root Sports and 710-AM radio.

This story was originally published August 2, 2018 at 6:17 PM.