Wild rally. Mariners almost lose seven-run lead, but rely on two aces — James Paxton, Edwin Diaz
James Paxton slammed his fist into his glove and turned his back toward the two runners on base as he walked back toward the Seattle Mariners’ away dugout.
Manager Scott Servais had said they’d likely cap Paxton at 85 pitches in his first start off of the disabled list after taking a 96-mph comebacker off his pitching arm in this same Oakland Coliseum almost three weeks ago. But even after back-to-back walks, Servais left Paxton in the game to face A’s slugger Khris Davis.
His 98th pitch had Davis whiffing and had Paxton through five innings with his 10th strikeout.
The Mariners have missed that.
But even with their ace starter back and a seven-run lead, it took the Mariners’ ace closer to get out of this.
The Mariners survived a wild finish. The Athletics rallied to cut the lead to 8-7, but Edwin Diaz held it together from there for a four-out save on Saturday.
“Just the way we like them — one-run games,” Mariners manager Scott Servais quipped to reporters afterward.
It didn’t matter if this win was by one run or seven runs. The Mariners (76-50) just need wins this weekend in Oakland. This win wasn’t mathematically required for Seattle, but it and another if they can get it Sunday afternoon in the four-game series finale are so needed in this playoff chase.
This one pulled them back to within 4½ games of the A’s for the American League’s final wild card, but it took them holding on after Marcus Semien’s three-run double in the eighth inning.
“Big game we needed to have tonight,” Servais said. “Our bats were outstanding against a number of different pitchers they were throwing at us (nine, actually — yes, the A’s used nine pitchers, including an “opener”).
“Big game, but we got to come back tomorrow and try to win the series.”
Alex Colome walked the bases loaded and earlier had allowed a solo home run to Davis, his major-league-leading 40th homer of the season. That forced Diaz into the game and Semien lined the first pitch he threw into left field before Denard Span kicked it off to his side, allowing the bases to clear.
But Diaz showed why he’s probably the MVP of the Mariners season. He struck out Matt Chapman to end the eighth and then worked around a leadoff walk by striking out Davis, Stephen Piscotty and Matt Olson after that in the ninth in his first appearance since a week earlier in Arizona.
What a slider on Diaz’s final pitch, too, getting Olson swinging.
What a game.
“I was locked in,” Diaz told Root Sports afterward. “Those guys are playing great baseball, man, and if you make a mistake you can lose the game. So I came locked in and tried to make my pitches.
“I left my slider in the middle (to Semien) and he hit it pretty good but after that I got my fourth strikeout and we won the game.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Edwin Diaz with another one run save in the <a href="https://twitter.com/Mariners?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Mariners</a> win. Third time this year he's got a 4-out save. He's now got 51 saves on the season. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ROOTFANFAV?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ROOTFANFAV</a> <a href="https://t.co/TXbdELFUl0">pic.twitter.com/TXbdELFUl0</a></p>— ROOT SPORTS™ | NW (@ROOTSPORTS_NW) <a href="https://twitter.com/ROOTSPORTS_NW/status/1036117661267054592?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 2, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
And the Mariners can thank Oakland’s defense for its two errors and other miscues that led to a quick 5-1 lead after three innings. It was 8-1 after Jean Segura’s two-run single in the fifth.
After Sunday, the Mariners return to Safeco Field for a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles and the A’s host the New York Yankees, the top wild-card holder, for three games. And how nice would a 3½-game deficit look compared to 4½ heading into that?
But how nice to have Paxton back.
He has struck out double-digit batters now in eight games this season, and 11 of those for his career. Only the Nationals’ Max Scherzer (14), Red Sox’s Chris Sale (11), Indians’ Trevor Bauer (10), Astros’ Justin Verlander (nine) and Mets’ Jacob deGrom (nine) have more double-digit strikeout games than Paxton this season.
“I thought Paxton for not being out there for a few weeks was really sharp. His stuff was outstanding,” Servais said. “He was probably over his (pitch) limit, but we were just giving him an opportunity to win the ball game.
“Nice not just getting him back, but getting him back like the good Pax. The down time was good for him, but he also made an adjustment mechanically, really driving down the hill and the tightness and depth to the curveball tonight was outstanding.”
This game was up to the Mariners’ current ace.
On Sunday it’s up to their King, Felix Hernandez, who not long ago had been briefly exiled to the Mariners’ bullpen.
What a defensive debacle from the A’s though.
And almost a defensive disaster for the Mariners.
Start with the third inning.
The Mariners had a 2-0 lead after Ben Gamel’s two-run double before Robinson Cano stopped at third base on Denard Span’s single to center field. But Ramon Laureano didn’t field Span’s hit cleanly, lost it and suddenly Cano trotted into home easily for another Mariners run.
The next batter, Ryon Healy, served a soft fly ball into shallow right field. It should have been an easy out, but instead was an RBI single when right fielder Stephen Piscotty stopped and Jed Lowrie reached over his shoulder and lunged trying to make the catch. So Cruz scored for a 4-1, Mariners lead.
Another batter, another A’s miscue. Kyle Seager followed with a single off the wall in right field. Span briefly stopped at third base but charged into home because Lowrie didn’t handle the relay and the ball got away.
So 5-1, Mariners, and Laureano even seemed to briefly bobble a soft fly ball to center field from the next batter, Mike Zunino, before hanging on.
That’s been the theme of this series. A’s third baseman Matt Chapman’s error led to four Mariners runs on Thursday in Seattle’s win, and a ball off the end of Cameron Maybin’s glove preceded four A’s runs on Friday.
Mitch Haniger extended his hit streak to 13 games, tying a career high and the longest active hit streak in the major leagues, with a double to lead off the fourth inning. He made it 6-1, Mariners, when Cruz drove him home after hustling to beat a potential inning-ending double play ball.
And Segura tacked on two more runs in his first game back after missing the past two with a bone bruise in his shin. He hit a two-out, two-run single with the bases loaded in the fifth.
How little the Mariners knew of how big that hit would be.
That’s 20 runs the Mariners have scored in three games in Oakland – after scoring six runs over their three-game losing streak against the Diamondbacks and Padres entering this series.
Let’s get to it. Three takeaways:
Diabolical Diaz
Make that 51 saves.
Edwin Diaz wasn’t expecting he’d need to save the game and, for now, the Mariners’ season when the Mariners had cruised to an 8-1 lead after the fifth inning. But by the time he trotted into the game, the bases were loaded and the lead cut to 8-4.
His first slider went down the heart of the plate and Marcus Semien hit it into left field for a double after Denard Span’s error fielding it. That cleared the bases and suddenly the Mariners’ lead was trimmed to 8-7 with the tying run at second.
So Diaz struck out Matt Chapman on a full-count fastball. He walked Jed Lowrie to lead off the ninth, but then struck out Khris Davis, Stephen Piscotty and Matt Olson, all swinging, to secure the win.
“They are playing great baseball and we are playing great baseball, too,” Diaz said. “But we are chasing them. We’ve got two out of three games and we need the same tomorrow and Fifi (Felix Hernandez) to get us the win.”
Defense?
Let’s go over the defensive miscues that led to runs.
First for the A’s: A misplay from Ramon Laureano in center field when Robinson Cano scored, miscommunication between Jed Lowrie and Stephen Piscotty that led to another, then an error on Lowrie when he misplayed a relay. All led to a 5-1 Mariners lead.
And those were just the ones that led to runs.
But Denard Span helped the A’s out when he kicked a ball he ran toward in the gap on Marcus Semien’s double. Span got an error and that helped the A’s unload the bases for three runs in the eighth inning to trim the Mariners’ once 8-1 lead to 8-7.
Paxton’s return
James Paxton was supposed to pitch between 80-85 pitches, Servais said before the game.
But by the time he struck out his third batter of the fifth inning he was at 98 pitches. But those were big strikeouts.
That’s what aces do, and what the Mariners have missed after he took a line drive off his left forearm here against these A’s that send him to the disabled list on Aug. 14.
Paxton allowed a two-run home run to Mark Canha earlier in the fifth inning, followed with back-to-back strikeouts before he walked Matt Chapman and Jed Lowrie to set up two on for slugger Khris Davis –with the Mariners’ bullpen just starting to stir, even with Paxton over that 85-pitch mark.
Paxton rallied from down 2-0 and 3-1 in the count against Davis before striking him out on a 90-mph cutter.
Quotable
Servais on Diaz closing it out:
“He’s been awesome for us all year and that’s a tough spot to come in, with teh game on the line right there,” Servais said. “He left a pitch up to Semien but oftentimes we’ve seen with Eddie is if he gives up a big hit or whatever he keeps it together.”
This story was originally published September 1, 2018 at 9:42 PM.