Jean Segura’s back, so is Ben Gamel. Now Mariners need their bats

The Seattle Mariners need all the reinforcements they can get ahead of a three-game series with the Houston Astros, one day after securing an ugly series loss to the Los Angles Dodgers with a 12-1 loss.

So they had All-Star shortstop Jean Segura back after activating him off of the paternity list on Monday.

They also had outfielder Ben Gamel, who has raked against Triple-A pitching to the tune of a .349 batting average in 21 games and is batting .290 with a .360 on-base percentage in 72 games for the Mariners this season.

To make room, the Mariners optioned outfielder Guillermo Heredia to Triple-A Tacoma and right-handed reliever Matt Festa back to Double-A Arkansas.

But with left-handed-hitting Gamel hitting so well and right-handed Heredia so poorly – what took so long?

“We’ve been talking about getting him back for a little while now,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Over the weekend we were facing a lot of left-handed pitching so we thought this would be a good time to bring him back and hopefully bring the hot bat with him.”

But Gamel’s bat wasn’t just a hot in Tacoma.

Gamel was optioned on Aug. 1 despite hitting .338 with the Mariners over his previous 49 games before the move. But the Mariners preferred to keep Heredia for his defense after adding Cameron Maybin in a trade from the Miami Marlins, though it’s not like Gamel is a bad defensive option, just not as skilled as Heredia.

Servais raved about Gamel’s attitude when told he was being sent down, despite his productive bat.

“Obviously it’s not what anyone wants to hear,” Gamel said Monday. “But I mean, I understood where he was coming from and at the end of the day I just got to try to go down there and get better.”

Gamel turned Tacoma’s Cheney Stadium into his playground. He hit a home run his first game down, he had a hit in 13 of his 15 games played since rejoining the Rainiers, had the second-most extra-base hits of any player in the Pacific Coast League in that stretch and in his 21 games with the Rainiers he has a .415 on-base percentage.

Rainiers manager Pat Listach had seen enough.

“This guy is a big-league hitter,” Listach said two weeks ago. “And will he be a big leaguer for a long time? Yes. It’s a swing that works in the big leagues. It’s just a matter of time for him. I’ve seen guys come and go – this guy is a big-league hitter.”

Now – the Mariners need offense. They were outscored 27-7 this past series against the reigning National League champions.

And they need wins, trailing the Athletics by 3.5 games and the Astros by 4.5 games.

So here’s Gamel after Heredia, who started the season strong, has batted .172 with a .217 on-base percentage since June 1. Since Gamel was optioned, Heredia has batted .147 with a .171 on-base percentage in 14 games.

“Guillermo understood,” Servais said. “He knows he’ll be back in 10-11 days and he’ll contribute. Another guy (like Gamel) with a great attitude. I love Guillermo and what he brings. The bat has slowed down quite a bit with him but he brings other things defensively that we value and I thought he played fine.”

The Mariners can expand their roster to 40 players on Sept. 1.

Gamel played center field for the majority of his time in Tacoma, but Servais said Maybin will get the majority of the playing time in center for the Mariners, with Haniger likely there when Maybin is off.

Segura spent the past three days on the major-league paternity list with his wife giving birth to their child. He’s batting .314 this season and went 4-for-5 in two of his past three games.

Air quality

The Mariners played Monday’s series opener against the Astros under a considerable veil of smoke that blanketed Seattle from forest fires in Eastern Washington and British Columbia.

Despite the National Weather Service in Seattle issuing an Air Quality Alert and air-quality ratings ranging from moderate to unhealthy, the game continued as scheduled. They kept the Safeco Field roof open, fearing closing it would just trap the smoke inside the stadium.

The Mariners took batting practice inside, though the Astros didn’t.

“I’ve never seen it like this,” Servais said.

“You can see it coming into the ball park and it’s not great. But there’s nothing we can do about it. We’ll limit our exposure to it, but the game will go on. And I don’t think it helps if we close the roof, either. We’ll leave it open and hopefully some wind gets in here and pushes some things out.”

Injury updates

Left-hander James Paxton pushed himself to throwing from 90-100 feet in his second day of playing catch since he went to the disabled list with a bruised left forearm.

He’s eligible to return from the DL on Saturday, but it would be in Arizona against the Diamondbacks of the National League. Since that means pitchers would bat, Servais indicated it might be more likely Paxton returns sometime next week, assuming all continues to progress well.

Right-handed reliever Sam Tuivailala had surgery last week on his torn right Achilles tendon and Servais said his recovery likely won’t have him back until sometime during next year’s regular season.

Backup catcher Chris Herrmann was available to play Monday if needed despite leaving with a bruised knee in Sunday’s game.

On tap

Right-hander Mike Leake (8-7, 3.90 ERA) starts for the Mariners in their 7:10 p.m. Tuesday matchup against the Astros, who had yet to announce their starter.

The game will broadcast on Root Sports and 710-AM radio.

This story was originally published August 20, 2018 at 12:40 PM.