Jose Marmolejos’ hits first career grand slam as Mariners split doubleheader with Padres
Jose Marmolejos left the yard in both games of the Mariners’ doubleheader Thursday in San Diego.
The first time, he gave the Mariners and early lead with his two-run blast to center. The bullpen eventually squandered it, though, melting down in the seventh inning of a 10-7 loss.
The second time, Marmolejos gave his club even more early insurance, belting the first grand slam of his career in the first inning.
This after Marmolejos didn’t even know he would be activated until a few hours before game time. He joined the team as part of the five-man traveling taxi squad for this road trip, and was added as the 29th man for the doubleheader Thursday morning. He said he found out he would be joining the active roster just after 9 a.m.
“I got a text from Skip, and I just said, ‘Thank you very much. I really appreciate it,’ ” Marmolejos said on a postgame video call with reporters.
He entered the first game in the third inning as an injury replacement for first baseman Evan White, who left with right shoulder discomfort.
By the end of the two games, Marmolejos was 3-for-7 with the two homers and six RBI.
The second homer, and a timely double play he helped pull off with the bases loaded in the sixth, lifted the Mariners to an 8-3 win in the second game, gave them a split in the doubleheader and a series win. Seattle improved to 13-20 as it closed out the first leg of the Vedder Cup.
“That’s a pretty impactful 29th man,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said of Marmolejos postgame. “I think we might have to keep around a little bit longer. He really swung the bat well today. Really happy for him.”
Minutes after dropping a frustrating loss to the Padres in the first game, when they carried a four-run lead into the final frame, the Mariners’ offense unloaded.
J.P. Crawford and Sam Haggerty opened the game with back-to-back singles, and Kyle Lewis walked to load the bases. Kyle Seager pushed across one run on a sac fly, and Austin Nola walked to load the bases a second time.
Marmolejos coolly worked a favorable count before crunching a sinker from San Diego starter Garrett Richard to clear the bases.
Marmolejos became the first Mariner to homer in both games of a doubleheader since Alex Rodriguez in 2000. Edgar Martinez, David Segui and Jay Buhner are the other players in club history to accomplish the feat.
He said he wasn’t looking for the grand slam, but just wanted to make solid contact and focus on taking his at-bats one pitch at a time, and trying to enjoy his opportunity to play.
“When I got the news (about being activated), I was like, ‘OK, if you get in there just enjoy the game, go have fun, take it a pitch at a time. Just trust what you’ve been working on, stay there.’ I wasn’t really thinking about results, it just happened,” he said.
Shed Long Jr. pushed the Mariners’ early lead to 6-0 when he followed up with a solo homer in the first. Richard was pulled from the game at that point.
The Mariners gave starter Yusei Kikuchi plenty to work with before he even stepped on the mound, and he delivered a productive enough five-inning outing to keep the lead in tact.
“They’re a hot lineup right now,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Kevin Ando. “They didn’t make it easy for me to get outs. But, I think I was able to execute pitches when I really needed to.”
Manny Macahdo hit his third homer of the day on a solo shot in the first, and the Padres scored two more runs off Kikuchi on a Jurickson Profar single in the second and a Trent Grisham base hit in the fifth, but he left with a 6-3 lead, allowing the three runs on seven hits with no walks and six strikeouts on 81 pitches.
“Yusei struggled the first couple innings to get a secondary pitch going,” Servais said. “I thought he did a really nice job after about two innings ... to minimize his pitches. We had a little conversation down in the tunnel after the second inning and really asked him to stick with Austin Nola. He basically got through five innings of a ballgame against a pretty good team with one pitch. He had a pretty good cutter. He threw some good fastballs. ... Not as sharp, not as crisp of stuff as we’ve seen, certainly with his secondary pitches, but I was glad he was able to get through five.”
Rookie reliever Aaron Fletcher immediately ran into trouble in the sixth, walking the first two Padres batters he faced and allowing a single to load the bases with one out.
Joey Gerber, another rookie, was called in from the bullpen to replace him, and needed just one pitch to pinch hitter Josh Naylor to end the frame without damage. Naylor hit a sharp grounder to first, Marmolejos stepped on his bag, looked up and hurled the ball home, catching Eric Hosmer trying to advance for an inning-ending double play.
The Mariners added two more insurance runs in the seventh. Crawford singled, Haggerty doubled him in, and later scored on a Nola base hit.
Veteran relielver Yoshihisa Hirano ran into some traffic in the seventh, but kept the Padres from adding on late again to close out the win.
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 6:18 PM.
