Dunn settles after rough first, but Mariners can’t overcome early deficit against Angels
The Angels threw a few celebratory parties in the first inning.
First, a welcome back party for Mike Trout, a new dad who returned from paternity leave by smashing a solo homer to center in his first at-bat.
Then, a welcome to the majors party for their top prospect, outfielder Jo Adell, who in his first career at-bat outkicked a slow rolling ground ball for an infield single.
Albert Pujols joined in the festivities with career home run No. 659 — a two-run blast to the upper deck of Edgar’s Cantina in left field — which has him one homer shy of tying Willie Mays for fifth on the all-time list.
Mariners rookie starter Justin Dunn was on the receiving end of all of it in a 5-3 Mariners loss Tuesday night at T-Mobile Park.
Dunn, making his second start of the season against the Angels in the span of six days, labored through the first inning on 37 pitches as the Angels took a 3-0 lead Seattle never seriously threatened.
“Definitely a challenge,” he said during a postgame video call with reporters. “That lineup has a bunch of bangers from top to bottom. It’s a very stacked lineup, so I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me again.
“Just tried to be a little too cute there in that first inning, got into some bad counts, trying to use some sequences a little differently from the first time that I faced them, and fell behind and had to come in the zone and you do that against hitters like that and they make you pay.”
It was Trout — of course — who set everything in motion. The slugger patiently waded into his first at-bat, after missing the past four games as he and his wife welcomed their son, before jumping on a slider from Dunn.
The homer was Trout’s first of the season against the Mariners, but continued his years-long trend of roughing up Seattle pitchers. It was his 42nd home run against Seattle — his most against any opposing team. It was his 25th in T-Mobile Park — the only stadium he’s hit more in during his career is his own in Anaheim.
“I was hoping now that Trout is a dad, maybe the dad bod might have snuck up on him, but that was not the case, obviously,” Mariners manager Scott Servais joked postgame.
Dunn struck out Anthony Rendon, but then walked Brian Goodwin before Pujols crushed his two-run shot, giving Los Angeles its early three-run advantage.
Another walk to Tommy La Stella and Adell’s infield base hit followed. It seemed Dunn might not get out of the frame when Erik Swanson started warming, but he coaxed Jason Castro into a fly out to left to end it.
Eight batters and 37 pitches in the first inning — it wasn’t an ideal start for the 24-year-old as he tries to find his footing in a big league rotation for the first time.
But, what happened next showed promising progress. Dunn’s outing only improved as he gutted out three more innings.
He said his main goal knowing his start would be shorter than planned after the long first frame was to keep the score where it was for as long as he could to keep Seattle in reasonable striking distance.
“That’s what I’m trying to do every time out, every time I touch the ball, is try to be a reliable starter where they know what they’re going to get each time, and go compete,” he said. “So, my big thing was compete for the rest of the game, however long that may have been.”
He needed 19 pitches to get out of the second despite issuing a pair of walks. He needed just nine in the third and 11 in the fourth. Dunn retired the final seven batters he saw in order, including getting swinging strikeouts of Adell and Castro in the fourth.
Dunn finished with four complete innings allowing the three runs on three hits, while walking four and striking out four.
“He got out of it and then kind of pushed that aside and went out there and did exactly what we needed him to do,” Servais said. “We needed him to suck up a few more innings, and he did. Again, these guys are learning and he just saw the Angels last week over there. They’re going to have a pretty good idea on his breaking ball. That’s what got us tonight.”
It was a respectable finish considering how it started. But, the Mariners (4-8) never caught up in their fourth consecutive loss.
Austin Nola tripled in the sixth to drive in Kyle Seager, but the Angels provided a quick answer when David Fletcher knocked a two-run homer to left off Erik Swanson to make it 5-1.
The Mariners tacked on another run in the seventh on a Dylan Moore solo homer to left, and one more in the eighth on a single by Nola that pushed across Kyle Lewis, but they didn’t get closer.
Nola finished 2-for-3 with the triple, single and a walk. Moore was 2-for-4 with a double and the homer.
Lewis added another hit to his league-leading total of 18 with a double in the eighth, and robbed Castro of a homer in the seventh to save a run, but Fletcher’s homer came just a few moments later.
“That was awesome,” Moore, who was playing right field, said of Lewis’ grab. “That was really cool. It was one of those high ones where you get there in time, and you’ve just got to time the jump well and he did everything well.”
Mariners pitching prospect Joey Gerber made his big league debut in the sixth, tossing a clean 1-2-3 inning on 13 pitches.
The 23-year-old right-handed reliever was selected from the club’s alternate training site in Tacoma earlier in the day, and figures to be one of Seattle’s bullpen arms of the future as the club moves forward with its rebuilding plan. He’s considered the organization’s No. 22 prospect.
“First time out there, I really liked what that looked like and what the future holds for him,” Servais said. “I think he’s going to take on a pretty good role for us in the middle of our bullpen, which we really need, and it will help out.”
An eighth-round pick by the Mariners in 2018 out of Illinois, he pitched for both High-A Modesto and Double-A Arkansas last season finishing with a 2.59 ERA. He appeared in 44 games, finished 25 of them and earned eight saves. Across 48 2/3 innings he recorded 69 strikeouts to 19 walks.
He was was a candidate to make Seattle’s original Opening Day roster after posting five scoreless outings in spring training, but the COVID-19 pandemic squashed that idea.
Instead, he was one of several prospects invited to summer camp in July and had been working out with Seattle’s other reserves at Cheney Stadium for the past week.
He was called up along with Taylor Guilbeau on Tuesday as the Mariners placed starter Kendall Graveman (neck) on the 10-day injured list and optioned out reliever Zac Grotz.
This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 10:09 PM.
