There were plenty of heroes in last night’s 6-4 Mariners victory. Mitch Haniger banged a 2-run homer in the first. Mike Zunino chipped in with a 3-run homer in the third (and has his average over .240 to boot). Ben Gamel had 3 hits, 2 runs, and a MONSTER catch in foul territory in left field, crashing into the wall and coming down with the ball to get the second out in the eighth inning, with the Mariners only leading by 2. Cano, Valencia, and Dyson all had multi-hit games to help keep the offense rolling along.
But, this one belonged to the bullpen.
Sam Gaviglio was so-so. He was great through four innings, then gave up back-to-back solo homers in the fifth and downgraded to just good. But, he could only manage one out in the sixth before giving up a 2-run homer and subsequently getting pulled.
James Pazos yanked his ass out of the fire by striking out the final two batters of the inning; but he wasn’t done there. He erased a leadoff single with a double play, then walked a guy, allowed him to steal second, but got the next batter to pop out to end the inning. It wasn’t the prettiest, but Pazos went 1.2 innings to bridge this game to the eighth, and that’s just fine in my book!
Nick Vincent came in, got the first two batters out, gave up a single to Minnesota’s best power hitter in Miguel Sano, then was pulled for Scrabble with a lefty coming up. Scrabble walked the pinch hitter and was immediately replaced by Edwin Diaz for the 4-out save.
Diaz got the final batter in the eighth to strike out on three pitches. He got the first batter of the ninth to fly out to left-center, walked a guy, gave up an infield single, struck the next guy out, let the tying runners steal their way into scoring position, and got Brian Dozier to fly out to center to end the threat. I’ll admit, it looked pretty dicey there late in the game, but Diaz never looked like he was out of control and ultimately earned the skipper’s confidence in him.
In Long Reliever News, Casey Lawrence was sent back to Tacoma, this time replaced by our good buddy Chase De Jong. Since being demoted, De Jong has been far from ideal in AAA. In the first three starts, he got pretty well pounded, giving up 8 homers in 17 innings; his sterling April ERA with Tacoma took a fucking BEATING. But, in his most recent start, he went 6 shutout innings. I’ve got to think he’s only here on an emergency basis, until the Mariners have waited the requisite amount of time until Emilio Pagan is allowed to return, and they won’t put De Jong in any games unless they’re winning or losing big.
In other news, Hisashi Iwakuma pitched 4 shutout innings with the Modesto Nuts. Felix is set to pitch one more time in Tacoma this weekend I think. Jean Segura is making great progress and could be back as early as next week. And Major League Baseball concluded its draft. The Mariners picked a bunch of guys I’ve never heard of and probably will never hear of. I’m being told that each of the Top 10 draft picks will sign with the team though, so that’s exciting. REFILL THAT FARM SYSTEM!!! Also, I heard Kyle Lewis returned from his ACL tear and is back playing some baseball again, so that’s fun.
The Mariners finish their season series with the Twins later this morning with a 10am local start time. Ariel Miranda will try to help the M’s win this series 3-1 and get the team back to .500 overall. Please God, let it happen.