Mariners overcome opener woes against Orioles, string together back-to-back wins for first time since May
It took six innings, two home runs and and a string of four base hits, but the Seattle Mariners eventually did climb out of another first-inning deficit to post consecutive wins for the first time since sweeping the A’s in a two-game series more than five weeks ago.
After the Mariners spotted Baltimore a pair of runs in the top of the first, Omar Narvaez cut the lead in half with a solo shot in the second. Domingo Santana hit an opposite-field homer for the 10th time this season in the sixth to finally tie the game, and Seattle piled on from there singles from there to collect a 5-2 win Thursday night at T-Mobile Park.
Daniel Vogelbach, Narvaez and Kyle Seager hit consecutive singles following Santana’s knock, with Seager’s scoring a charging Vogelbach from second base. Two batters later, Mac Williamson drove in Narvaez with another single to make it 4-2. The Mariners tacked on one more run when Seager drew a bases-loaded walk in the seventh off Orioles reliever Paul Fry, pushing across Mallex Smith.
“We’re streaking,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said after the Mariners ended the long drought without winning consecutive games. “That’s what I’m going with tonight. It hasn’t been easy to get to there, but after a rough first inning again, Wade (LeBlanc) did a great job, really settled right in.
“We got enough hits. Big homer by Domingo after Omar got us on the board with his homer, and some good at-bats after that, kind of grinding through them, getting guys on base. .. It was enough, offensively.”
But, it took longer than hoped to finally gain that decisive lead. Here’s what can be said for Mariners’ opener strategy after a seven-game sample — the results are strikingly consistent in both good and bad ways.
Making his second attempt this week at guiding Seattle through clean first inning, rookie Tayler Scott produced similarly troubling results. Much like his outing against Kansas City earlier in the homestand, Scott got ahead of or even with a handful of Baltimore’s hitters, but couldn’t manage to put them away.
He went up 0-2 on Jonathan Villar with the first two pitches of the game, but issued a leadoff walk. Two more walks alternated with a pair of outs, and Scott was removed with the bases loaded after managing just 2/3 of an inning for the second time.
“You’ve got to throw strikes,” Servais said. “A little trouble with that the last time out. But, you’ve got to throw the ball over the plate in this league. I don’t care who you’re facing, whether it’s experienced hitters, young hitters, you’ve got to throw strikes and he just wasn’t able to do that tonight to finish them off.”
LeBlanc (4-2, 4.75 ERA) entered the game as the follower an out earlier than planned, and Rio Ruiz pushed an RBI single through to right, scoring both Villar and Pedro Severino to give the Orioles an early two-run lead. Scott was charged with both runs, marking the fifth time in seven tries an opener has allowed multiple runs.
“We kind of scripted it out before the game,” Servais said. “If we got to that spot, which was the six-hole hitter, we were going to go to Wade, and we did. Didn’t get the first guy out, but stopped the bleeding right there and gives our offense a chance to get back in the game.”
The opener strategy is designed to keep Seattle’s regular rotation pitchers from facing the toughest part of an opponent’s lineup an extra time during their outing. That piece of the plan has often been effective, and the followers have posted impressive numbers, but they’re often met with an early deficit to pitch from. The relievers called in to execute the first inning have rarely been successful.
Through seven games, Seattle’s openers have allowed 13 earned runs on 11 hits, while walking 11 and striking out five in six innings. Their collective ERA is 19.50, and the Mariners have a deflating 3-4 record when using them. Thursday was the first time the opener spotted the opposing team runs and Seattle’s offense was able to overcome it for a win — but it didn’t happen until the sixth inning against a Baltimore club that has now lost nine straight, and carries the worst record in baseball.
The Mariners continue to go back to the opener strategy more because of the return on the back end. The followers — Tommy Milone and LeBlanc — have delivered some of their best performances of the season coming out of the bullpen as the follower.
The two have combined for a 3.10 ERA in 40 2/3 innings, allowing 31 hits, five walks and striking out 31. Take out Wade LeBlanc’s most recent outing in Oakland last week — he gave up six earned runs in 2 2/3 — and that collective ERA is a stunning 1.89.
“Everybody gets caught up in the first inning and what’s going on there, and it’s been a struggle for us,” Servais said. “We haven’t found that guy yet to go out there and put a zero up consistently, but overall what you’re looking for out of that, it’s working. I know people will disagree with that because they get caught up in the first inning, but at the end of the day, we get seven innings out of our starter and one other guy, and it’s two runs and you’re right there in the game. It’s working.
“As far as Wade and Tommy being able to handle it, they’ve done a great job, and it’s helping them. We’ll see where we’re at going forward.”
After delivering one of his shortest outings of the season against the A’s, LeBlanc bounced back impressively against the Orioles, tossing 6 1/3 shutout frames despite entering the game in the first inning instead of the scheduled second. It was the first time this season he’s held an opponent scoreless. He allowed just four hits and two walks (one intentional) while striking out seven on 92 pitches.
He said after the frustrating game in Oakland, he focused on executing better in the days leading up to Thursday’s start.
“Executing glove-side better is the most important thing for me, and that’s going to be important moving forward, too,” LeBlanc said. “It opens up the outside corner for a lot of other stuff. It’s huge for me, it’s huge for Marco (Gonzales). It’s huge for guys like us.”
And when he is executing consistently, the strikeouts and weak contact will come.
“I found a lot of barrels in Oakland,” LeBlanc said. “That’s usually not a good formula for me.”
His crisp outing this time through gave the Mariners’ offense enough time to solve Orioles starter Dylan Bundy (3-9, 4.59), who matched a season-high with eight strikeouts, and worked efficiently through the lineup twice before Seattle unleashed three runs in the decisive sixth.
Reliever Austin Adams struck out the side in the eighth, and Roenis Elias pitched a clean ninth and notched the save as the Mariners held the Orioles scoreless over the final eight frames.
“It seems like guys are getting into a rhythm, getting into a comfort zone, so hopefully we can keep it going,” LeBlanc said.
This story was originally published June 20, 2019 at 10:27 PM.
