Mariners gets contributions up and down lineup, sweep A’s in doubleheader
This young Mariners team provided another glimpse Saturday afternoon in Oakland of how exciting baseball in Seattle could be in the coming years.
A day after getting walked off in extra innings, after holding the A’s scoreless the first nine, the Mariners came firing back, loudly sweeping Saturday’s doubleheader against the American League West champions at the Oakland Coliseum.
“To be able to come out and sweep a doubleheader — it’s tough, and it’s promising for what we have to come next year,” Mariners starter Justin Dunn said during a postgame video call. “That shows what our lineup can do day in and day out. It shows how we can pitch it, both starter and bullpen, and I’m really excited for where we’re going to be next year, and hopefully make a run at it again next year.”
After topping the A’s, 5-1, with a late offensive burst in extra innings in the first game, the Mariners completely unloaded in the second for a 12-3 win, and are now 27-32 with Sunday’s season finale ahead.
“Great effort by our guys today,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “I thought losing a tough one last night like we did, getting walked off, you’re hoping guys bounce back. Obviously the first game was huge, but the second game, offensively we got a nice rhythm going there. … A lot of good stuff, a lot of fun, guys playing really loose, enjoying each other and just coming out and competing and it’s fun to watch.
“Like I said before the day started, I wish the season wasn’t ending as our guys are continuing to learn and grow. It’s been a fun year. Unfortunately we’re going to come up a little bit short in the playoff march, but very productive year, and it’s great to finish up the season on a high note.”
The Mariners got contributions up and down the lineup in the second game, with all nine batters reaching base at least once. Eight scored runs. Seven logged hits — with J.P. Crawford, Tim Lopes, Evan White and Dee Strange-Gordon all posting multi-hit games. Seven drove in at least one run.
Most of the offensive outburst came in an eight-run third inning, when the Mariners sent 13 batters to the plate. It all started when Strange-Gordon singled for his first of two hits in the frame. Then Joe Odom singled. Crawford — who was 5-for-8 with four RBI across the two games — doubled to tie the game at 1-1. The Mariners never trailed again.
On and on the inning went. Odom scored on a wild pitch to give Seattle a lead it never lost. Kyle Seager walked. Ty France doubled to score another run. Tim Lopes singled in another, making it 4-1 and forcing an early exit from A’s starter Paul Blackburn.
The Mariners kept the offense up against Oakland’s bullpen. Evan White — who was 3-for-4 in the second game — drove in another on an infield single. Braden Bishop drew a walk to force a run in with the bases loaded.
And Strange-Gordon singled again to drive in the final two runs, giving the Mariners an 8-1 lead at that point.
The sizeable cushion was plenty for Dunn to work with in his final appearance of the season. Dunn earned the win in his 10th start, completing five innings while allowing three runs on six hits, walking two and striking out two.
Two of the runs he allowed were solo homers from Robbie Grossman in the first and fifth. Oakland’s only other run came on a Jake Lamb single in the fourth, but Seattle’s lead seemed far out of reach by then.
“I thought Justin was very aggressive early on,” Servais said. “Thought he had a really good rhythm, the command of the fastball, getting into the strike zone early in the count, which is always important for him, was there. Maybe not his best or sharpest stuff that we’ve seen out of him all year, but once he got the big lead I thought he did a pretty good job to just keep attacking.”
The Mariners tacked on four more runs after Dunn’s day was over on three solo homers from Seager, White and Lopes and another RBI single from Crawford.
Seager had two homers — one in each game of the doubleheader — and collected his 500th career extra-base hit with his solo shot to right in the second game.
White’s no-doubt, 440-foot blast in the fifth was the second-longest home run by a Mariner this season.
Lopes’ solo shot in the sixth provided the 12th and final run for Seattle in its highest-scoring game of the season.
Walker Lockett pitched two scoreless innings in relief for the Mariners to close out the win.
MARINERS TOP A’S IN EXTRAS IN GAME 1
The Mariners took the A’s to extra innings again in the first game Saturday afternoon — and this time got a more satisfying result.
Locked up at 1-1 after seven innings, Seattle broke the game open in the eighth, scoring a pair of runs on back-to-back singles from Crawford and France, before a two-run blast from Seager solidified the 5-1 win.
“Heck of a comeback,” Servais said. “Can’t say enough about the effort and the grind that our guys show. We’ve got some grit with this group, which is great to see.”
Much like the night before, the Mariners opened extra innings with Strange-Gordon pinch running at second base. A sacrifice bunt from Bishop moved him up to third, and he scored easily on Crawford’s base hit to give Seattle its final advantage. Crawford promptly stole second, and then came around to score on France’s liner to left.
Then Seager belted his eighth homer of the season to give the club the four-run lead that was more than enough for Kendall Graveman to work with to close out the win.
Facing his former team, Graveman, who tossed a pair of scoreless innings, got two fly balls to open the eighth before striking out Ramon Laureano swinging to end the game.
With the game tied in the seventh, Graveman, who has carved out a role as one of Seattle’s reliable back end relievers since returning from the injured list after making two starts earlier in the summer, avoided another walk-off opportunity for the A’s.
He gave up a leadoff walk, but after the Mariners turned their fourth double play of the afternoon — Crawford fielded a grounder and hustled to tag second base before popping off the bag and slinging the ball to first to clear the bases — Graveman ended the inning without issue, holding the 1-1 score at that point.
“That was pretty cool to be able to go out in a high-leverage situation — especially this whole month,” Graveman said. “To be able to do that, there’s some added adrenaline.”
Trailing in the later innings, Seattle tied the score against A’s starter Mike Minor in the sixth, when Crawford singled to center to score Bishop, who doubled ahead of him.
Crawford finished 3-for-4 with the two RBI. Bishop went 2-for-2, also logging the first of only four hits the Mariners had against Minor, who allowed the one run in five-plus innings with seven strikeouts.
Though the regular season is winding down, and the Mariners are no longer in postseason contention, that didn’t stop rookie Justus Sheffield from adding another productive start to what has been a breakout season.
The 24-year-old completed five innings in his final of 10 starts of this season, allowing one run on five hits with two walks and a strikeout on 82 pitches, despite having to work out of traffic in multiple innings.
“He understands who he is now, and on days he’s not quite on, you still have to figure out a way to give your team a chance to win, and that’s exactly what he did today,” Servais said. “It wasn’t pretty. There was a lot of traffic. You look up it was first and third nobody out, you look up two innings later, it’s first and third nobody out again. And the whole time, he only gives up one run, so a heck of an outing, heck of an effort by him without his A-game.”
Sheffield dealt with base runners in each of his first three innings, but limited damage, escaping a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the second with a pair of fly balls, and leaning on his defense, who turned double plays in the first, third and fourth.
He allowed his only run in the fourth on a sac fly from Khris Davis before retiring the side in order in the fifth, including ending his outing with a strikeout of Marcus Semien.
“It was definitely a grind,” Sheffield said. “Just really couldn’t locate it like I wanted to. I was trying to go in on the inner half and the ball was just kind of sailing on me, so definitely a grind, definitely had to compete through that one. But, I had great defense played behind me so I ended up getting through it.”
This story was originally published September 26, 2020 at 4:00 PM.
