Takeaway
After a pair of historic defeats Friday (15-1) and Saturday (22-10), the Mariners (55-63) built a 7-0 lead, survived some late-game flop sweat, and defeated the Boston Red Sox 10-8 in 12 innings Sunday to avoid a broom job at Fenway Park (box score). Franklin Gutierrez hit two home runs, Robinson Cano had five hits, including a homer, and Nelson Cruz crushed another, his MLB-leading 36th.
Essential moment
In the 12th, with the score 8-8 after Seattle led 7-0 in the third and 8-4 in the seventh, the Mariners loaded the bases courtesy of an error on Boston pitcher Craig Breslow. Seattle catcher Mike Zunino, fanned three times, delivered a chopper over shortstop for what proved to be the winning run. Kyle Seager’s subsequent single with the sacks still full accounted for the winning margin.
Hitters
Cano went 5-for-7 with a home run (13th), double and three singles. That marked the first five-hit game by a Mariner since Mike Carp Sept. 20, 2011. Gutierrez hit his sixth and seventh homers and knocked in four runs. His second staked Seattle to a 7-0 lead.
Cruz went 1-for-7 but hit his MLB-leading 36th homer in the seventh inning. Cruz has reached base in a career-high 27 consecutive games. The back-to-back home runs by Cano and Gutierrez in the third marked the seventh time this season the Mariners have done that, most in the majors. The Mariners have home runs in 14 consecutive road contests. Ketel Marte went 2-for-5 with a pair of doubles from the leadoff spot and is batting .271.
The Mariners, who finished with 18 hits, had ample opportunities to win before the 12th. They left two runners on in the fourth, fifth, seventh innings and ninth innings before Zunino delivered. Seattle finished 5-for-19 with runners in scoring position.
Pitchers
Seattle starter Vidal Nuno threw 84 pitches over 4.1 innings and exited with a 7-4 lead. He allowed four earned runs on nine hits, including two homers with two strikeouts and a walk.
The Mariners used six relievers after Nuno departed. Carson Smith recorded his third blown save, Rob Rasmussen (2-1) collected the win, and Danny Farquhar got the save, his first of the season.
Noteworthy
The 45 runs allowed by the Mariners during the series are the most in any three-game stretch in franchise history. The Mariners allowed 41 to the White Sox and Angels from May 10-13, 1994 . . .Sixty-seven of Seattle’s 118 games have been decided by two or fewer runs . . .The Mariners have played 19 extra-inning games (10-9) . . . Boston’s No. 9 hitter, Jackie Bradley Jr., went 1-for-5 with a walk and a run scored as an encore to his five-hit, seven-RBI, five-run game Friday night. In that contest, Bradley became the first No. 9 hitter in major league history with five hits and five runs scored in the same game.
Next
The Mariners begin a three-game series with the Texas Rangers in Arlington Monday at 5:05 p.m. RHP Taijuan Walker (8-7, 4.60) will throw for Seattle against LHP Cole Hamels (0-1, 5.93).
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="2207495 https://sportspressnw.wpengine.com/?p=2207495">13 Comments
I’m thinking Cano will finish at about .285 in batting average. He’s been improving. He’ll face more and more pitchers who are call-ups and untested. He should finish well. Disregard his salary for the moment. Maybe he’ll be 30 points in batting average below what was expected. Compare that to the differential in batting average at the catcher position between the Mariners and the league average. That might actually be 100 points in BA. Big difference. Jack not providing a competitive backup at catcher was huge this season.
Counter argument: leaders like Cano are paid to lead right out of the blocks. Everything seems to wheel around them. Great leaders bring the level up in their teammates. Bird. Jordan. Jeter. Posey. Harper, for instance, clearly is not a team leader like Posey. Maybe Cano is not either. But that means Jack horrificly overpaid to acquire him. Really helped on the marketing side. Not so much when it came to the lineup.
It’s good news that his poor play was due to an injury. Very good news. Now that he feels better he looks like the player he was last season.
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The best health term is ailment. The mystery is why treatment wasn’t more effective earlier.
Too bad Cano didn’t hit .285 thru the first 100 games. Oh well, it’s just another losing season. We as M’s fans are used to it. Good thing we still have the Princess Corner for Felix & Trader Jack Z in 2016, who needs winning baseball? A Seattle World Series would just be awful, ask Howie, he’ll readily confirm.
Attendance and TV ratings are up. All is good.
The overpay for Cano is not news. The Mariners will say directly that they overpaid Cano and Cruz. They did it to win in 2015, but forgot that the bullpen was, in LMC’s words, the backbone of the team.
So when was the last time the M’s sorry sack #9 hitter had 5 hits, 2 hr’s & 7 rbi’s in a game? Probably never….. what’s even more hilarious is that has happened to the M’s many a time over, minus 1 or so in a category. Worst run differential in the league….. I wonder how many years under the keen baseball eye of Trader Jack Z they’ve actually outscored their opponents for the season?
Bradley was overdue?!
Well basically every single crappy M’s has been “overdue” under the Trader Jack Z watch, still waiting for that breakout in year seven of the plan…..
Heck, it’s not even September yet. The month when epic baseball happens. With rocky pitching from starters and the bull pen I expect plenty of scoring from the M’s opponents. Can the M’s score enough runs to go .500 the rest of this season?
Little help coming from the farm this callup.
No improvement in the farm system and no playoffs this year. That’s two strikes against JZ and the third strike is his whole body of work. JZ your Out!