Sheffield solid, Mariners rally late to top Rangers, push winning streak to 4 games
The Mariners broke through late against the Rangers on Saturday night to keep their current winning streak — now at four games — alive with a 5-3 victory at T-Mobile Park.
They have now won 10 of their past 14, are inching ever closer to breaking even, now at 17-22 with a month left to play in this abbreviated season, and are consistently putting together quality ballgames.
What’s at the center of this impressive stretch?
“Starting pitching is the name of the game,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said during his postgame video call. “It gives you a chance every night.”
That rang true again Saturday, as rookie Justus Sheffield put together one of the better outings of his first full season with the club. Sheffield didn’t record a decision despite tossing a career-high seven innings, but he kept the Mariners in good position throughout.
In his fourth quality start of the season, Sheffield allowed a pair of runs on eight hits with six strikeouts and one walk.
He worked through his first three innings with ease, and was aided by a stellar 5-3-5 double play, when Scott Heineman hit a sharp grounder to Kyle Seager at third, who made a back-handed snag, and threw off-balance to Evan White for the first out. White then ripped the ball right back to Seager to get Shin-Soo Choo trying to advance.
“I was fired up for that one,” Sheffield said.
With the Mariners carrying a 2-0 lead, the Rangers finally got one run back in the fourth when a fielder’s choice scored Nick Solak, but Sheffield ended the threat there without further damage.
It wasn’t until Anderson Tejeda’s solo homer with two outs in the seventh that the Rangers finally evened the score. Sheffield shouted in frustration when Tejeda turned on the pitch and hammered it over the left field fence to tie it at 2-2. Sheffield wrapped up the inning with his final of his six strikeouts, but was lifted from the game at that point at 87 pitches.
“Definitely wanted to go back out, but Skip came up to me, talked to me and pretty much told me I threw a hell of a game and we were going to give it to the bullpen, and the guys were going to get a win in the end,” Sheffield said. “I’m just glad that we got the win right there.”
“Sheff was dynamite tonight,” Servais said. “For the most part kept the ball on the ground. They did have some ground ball singles, some balls that got through the infield, but awesome outing by him again. I know he wants to get that one pitch back on the home run he gave up there in the seventh, but really happy with how he continues to throw the ball and progress.”
Joey Gerber tossed a clean eighth for the Mariners and Yohan Ramirez, Seattle’s Rule 5 pick last offseason, closed out the win despite allowing a solo homer to to Shin-Soo Choo to lead off the ninth, for the second save of his young career.
It wasn’t until the decisive eight that the Mariners finally broke the late tie.
Seager was hit by a pitch to open the frame, newcomer Ty France then singled behind him and Jose Marmolejos smacked a single back up the middle and Seager scored the go-ahead run to make it 3-2.
But, the Mariners weren’t done yet. White knocked in another run with a base hit, and Phillip Ervin, in his first game with Seattle, ripped a double down the line in left, to push one more across.
“It felt good to get in there and just do something to help the team win, especially the first day to get some jitters out the way,” Ervin said. “Overall I’m happy with my performance today. Hopefully I can keep building off that.”
Seattle had opportunities to pull away earlier, and despite carrying the lead most of the way, and eventually scratching across the three runs in the eighth, left the bases loaded twice and were thrown out at home twice.
J.P. Crawford reached on a fielder’s choice in the third, Dylan Moore walked behind him, and Crawford scored the game’s first run on a Kyle Lewis line drive to center.
Seager was hit by a pitch — for the first of two times in the game — and France followed up with a walk to push across another run and make it 2-0. But, the Mariners got nothing else as Marmolejos lined out to Texas starter Kyle Gibson to end the frame.
Another opportunity to blow the game open went awry in the fifth. Crawford and Moore opened the inning with back-to-back singles, but Crawford was later thrown out at home trying to score on a wild pitch. Seager was intentionally walked and France notched an infield base hit to load the bases again. But, Marmolejos was called out on strikes to end the threat.
Still, the two early runs the Mariners scored held up until the seventh.
This story was originally published September 5, 2020 at 9:24 PM.
