Mariners open final homestand by splitting doubleheader with A’s
Mariners rookie center fielder Kyle Lewis made a catch so stunning Monday evening it drew immediate comparisons to Ken Griffey Jr.’s days roaming the outfield for Seattle.
In the second game of a doubleheader inside a hazy T-Mobile Park, the A’s loaded the bases in the first inning against Mariners starter Jimmy Yacabonis. Ramon Laureano then crushed a slider deep to center that would have easily cleared the wall. But, Lewis sprinted back to the warning track, planted both feet and jumped well above the wall, glove hand outstretched, and hauled in the catch.
“I knew I was going to have a chance off the bat,” Lewis said during a postgame video call. “A lot of balls in that left center gap, it gets pretty deep back there, so I knew I was going to have a chance if I could time it up right,and I was able to get back there, time it up right and make the play. That was a huge moment, and I was hoping that would be able to propel us to another win, so I was excited.”
The 25-year-old American League Rookie of the Year contender then galloped back through the outfield, pounded a fist to his chest and let out a scream as his teammates roared around him.
“We’re trying to win games, man, and after we came in and won an emotional Game 1, to come back in the first inning and save four runs, that just was an overflow of emotion for me,” Lewis said.
Unfortunately for the Mariners, that was perhaps the only highlight of what eventually turned into a 9-0 loss. Seattle (22-26) won the first game, 6-5, to split the doubleheader with Oakland, and remained 1 1/2 games back of the Astros, who were idle Monday, for second place in the AL West.
“Two really crazy games today,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “The second game obviously coming off the huge high from the comeback win in the first game, you’re hoping to get off to a good start there.
“I will have to say, the catch that Kyle Lewis made was unbelievable. Probably one of the best catches I’ve ever seen, with the bases loaded on top of it. He makes that catch and after the first inning you think this could be our day but it certainly wasn’t in the second game.
“Our relievers struggled to throw strikes and stay in good counts. You’ve got to give (the A’s) credit. They jumped on us there and put us away that ballgame.”
After rallying for six runs in the final three innings in the first game earlier in the afternoon, Seattle’s bats were quiet in the finale of the short meeting.
The Mariners managed two hits — rookie Donovan Walton singled to center in the third and Lewis doubled in the seventh — off Oakland starter Mike Minor, who tallied seven shutout innings on 102 pitches and struck out eight. The Mariners managed four base runners in the game. Lewis was the only one to reach second base.
Meanwhile, the A’s roughed up three Mariners relievers, combining for the nine runs on 11 hits.
Mark Canha’s bases-loaded single with one out in the first scored the game-winning run. Yacabonis, making his first start for the Mariners as part of a bullpen day, was eventually charged with the loss.
Oakland broke the game open in the third, tagging Seth Frankoff with five runs. Laureano doubled to score two, Jonah Heim singled to drive in another, a Marcus Semien grounder scratched a run across and Robbie Grossman mae it 6-0 with a single. The A’s sent 10 batters to the plate in the inning.
Brady Lail pitched the final four frames, and logged a pair of 1-2-3 innings for the Mariners in the fourth and fifth, but found trouble in the sixth, when the A’s tacked on two more runs on solo homers from Canha and Seattle native Jake Lamb, a Bishop Blanchet High School and University of Washington product who joined the club earlier in the day.
“To go four innings at the back end of that game allows us to save a few guys going into the next series against the Giants, which is really, really valuable,” Servais said. “I know people that don’t live it like we do every day don’t appreciate what he did, but awesome job by him to go four innings in the second game and keep some (bullpen) guys fresh for tomorrow because we’ve been running them pretty hard of late.”
MARINERS RALLY FOR 6-5 WIN IN GAME 1
Playing beneath the smoke that has smothered the Pacific Northwest the past week, the Mariners opened their final homestand with a 6-5 win in the first game of the doubleheader.
Three homers from Lewis and relative newcomers Luis Torrens and Jose Marmolejos, three doubles from Tim Lopes, and some patience in the decisive sixth helped the Mariners undo Oakland’s early five-run lead inside a hazy T-Mobile Park.
“It was a battle mentality for sure,” Lopes said. “I think our guys never feel like we’re out of it. There’s a lot of guys that believe in each other, pulling on the same side of the rope, and it was just really nice to see. It’s something that I feel like is ingrained in this team, is from top to bottom no one is going to give up.”
The Mariners chipped away at what once looked like an insurmountable lead against the division leaders, and finally scratched across the decisive run with two outs in the sixth, when Lewis walked on four pitches with the bases loaded against A’s reliever Joakim Soria. Lopes hit his third double of the game — tying a single-game club record — to the gap in right center to score the tying run moments earlier.
It was all part of a three-inning rally that pushed the Mariners ever closer to ending a playoff drought that has lasted nearly two decades. Down 5-0 in the fourth, Torrens popped his first career homer to right to erase the possibility of a shutout. Marmolejos blasted another solo shot — his sixth homer of the season — to center to open the fifth. Lopes followed up with a double, and eventually scored when Lewis belted a two-run homer — his team-leading 10th of the season — to make it 5-4 and contribute to an early exit from A’s starter Jesus Luzardo.
Lopes, who was recalled from the Mariners’ alternate site in Tacoma as the 29th man for the doubleheader, finished 3-for-3 in the win. The final four batters in Seattle’s order combined to finish 7-for-12.
“Today was about our offense,” Servais said. “Guys up and down the lineup. Torrens’ first major league homer. Marmo continues to put together a great stretch of really productive at-bats. K-Lew got into one. He’s been due. He was really fired up for that. And then a lot of really good at-bats at the end. Tim Lopes, 29th player, that must be our secret weapon this year. When you’re the 29th player for us, good things happen. That’s what got Marmo going and Lopesy picked us up today with three big doubles.
“Great team win. Hopefully we can carry it over into the second game, keep that momentum going. A lot of good vibes in this clubhouse right now. It’s fun to be around.”
Mariners ace Marco Gonzales entered the day looking to provide his usual stability, but allowed a season-high five runs across his six complete innings. He still ultimately collected his sixth win of the season and fourth in as many outings.
“Awesome job to hang in there for us, get us through six innings,” Servais said. “We got him some needed run support today, and picking up the W is awesome for him.”
The A’s caused plenty of traffic in the first two innings on three hits, a walk and a hit by pitch, but Gonzales worked out of the jams well enough, allowing only one run when Marcus Semien ripped a two-out RBI single to left in the second that scored Khris Davis, who hit a ground-rule double earlier in the inning.
Gonzales recorded a clean, 1-2-3 inning in the third, but Oakland broke through in the fourth. Sean Murphy led off the frame with a solo homer to left barely visible through the haze. A single and a fielder’s choice followed, giving the A’s runners at the corners with one out. Then Semien cranked a three-run homer to the bleachers above Edgar’s Cantina in left to make it 5-0.
Gonzales didn’t allow anything else, striking out the side in the fifth and retiring eight of his nine batters, only interrupted by a fielding error, but damage had been done. He wrapped up his outing allowing the five runs on six hits with one walk and seven strikeouts on 103 pitches.
“Obviously I didn’t have my best stuff,” Gonzales said. “The cutter is a huge weapon for me, and just struggling to find the finish on it. I battled with what I had, and after I gave up the home run to Semien, I just thought, alright, the rest from here on out are going to be zeros, and we’ll see if the boys can come back and get a W. I commend the lineup. They really showed up and put together some good at-bats.”
Veteran reliever Yoshihisa Hirano closed out the win in the seventh, earning his second save of the season.
Despite the poor air quality flooding the ballpark and more limited visibility than usual, Servais said his players did not have any issues seeing the ball in the first game.
“That’s one of the reasons you’ve got the roof on, so you’ve got some backdrop there, you can see the ball when it goes up in the air,” he said. “No issues there. Certainly a little bit different than what you’re used to, but nobody had any problems.”
Monday’s doubleheader was scheduled after the planned three-game series between the Mariners and A’s in Seattle was postponed earlier this month due to a positive COVID-19 test in Oakland’s traveling party.
The final game of the series will be made up as part of a doubleheader when the Mariners visit Oakland to close out the regular season at the end of the month.
This story was originally published September 14, 2020 at 4:32 PM.
