Rookie Brandon Maurer pitched 6.1 effective innings, Carlos Peguero blasted a 451-foot, moonshot home run, and Kyle Seager extended his hitting streak to 14 games as the Mariners put a dismal 1-5 road trip into the rear-view mirror with a 6-0 rout of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Thursday night at Safeco Field.
The victory snapped Seattle’s two-game losing streak and partially removed, if only briefly, the bitter after-taste of back-to-back losses to the Houston Astros. The Mariners are now 9-15, but still a long way away from a respectable April with five games remaining.
Thursday’s game marked just the third time in the past 15 that Seattle has scored more than three runs in a game.
Maurer, who posted a 16.20 ERA in his first two starts, placing in peril his spot in the rotation, has a 1.89 ERA over his last three. Thursday, he allowed seven hits, struck out six and walked just one in improving to 2-3.
Peguero, just called up from AAA Tacoma to replace the injured Franklin Gutierrez, who went on the disabled list Wednesday for the fifth time since 2011, ripped what the Mariners claim as the third-longest home run in the 12 1/2-year history of Safeco Field.
The only longer home runs than Peguero’s third-inning shot were 462 feet by San Francisco’s Barry Bonds June 16, 2006 and 460 feet by the Mariners Raul Ibanez June 20, 2007.
Seager’s 14-game hitting streak — he had three hits, including a two-run homer — matches the longest streak in the majors so far this season. He is hitting .412 during the streak and has improved his batting average from .147 to .306 during the span. It was also Seager’s third, three-hit game of the season.
Peguero’s home run in the third, which left a mark on the batter’s eye wall beyond center field, staked the Mariners to a 1-0 lead. Seager followed with a single, driving home Endy Chavez. The Mariners added two runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth.
Friday, the Mariners will send RHP Aaron Harang (0-2, 10.24) to oppose lefty C.J. Wilson (1-0, 4.13). Harang gave up eight runs on eight hits — including three home runs — in a rough 4.2-inning start Sunday at Texas.
Wilson has thrown six innings in each of his four starts, but has walked at least three in each. In his last start, Wilson threw 57 pitches in the first two innings, but he settled down and threw just 54 over the next four.
4 Comments
I set a new record tonight. We left during the top of the second inning. And the park’s changes look like crap. We got a new gaudy screen for advertisements in place of that great old out-of-town scoreboard. And, sorry, Mariners, but if I had not known there was supposed to be a big new screen in centerfield, I probably would not have even noticed it was really larger. It hit me, though, all of sudden, seeing the changes in person, what the Mariners organization looks at as substantive improvement. But then it always has been about the experience at Safeco–which is not bad to a point–over the product on the field.
Spot on. I love the Rainiers. Aqua Sox. Bellingham Bells. Campyon the ‘entertainment’ side ( no caps n hydros). Authentic on the field. Affordable. Fun.
The home run by Carlos Peguero alone was worth the price of admission. That was simply stunning.
If the M’s split with the Angels that’ll be some progress.