Hustle in 13th Win for Mariners

The Seattle Mariners had to wait until the thirteenth inning for them to beat the Red Sox in the second game of the series. That means that the Mariners have won the series with Wednesday’s day game.  Wednesday’s game is expected to be tough because they are going against the Red Sox ace Chris Sale.

Both teams had opportunities to win the game. The Mariners were down by one run going into the seventh inning when Mike Zunino tied the game by hitting a home run to make it 4-4. The Mariners were the first team to score when Guillermo Heredia hit a three run homer in the second inning.  Hanley Ramirez hit a homer off of King Felix in the fourth inning for their first run.  The Red Sox scored four runs off of Felix in the sixth inning that removed him from the game.

The Mariners used six relievers who did not get scored on at all. Neither team scored again after the seventh until the thirteenth inning. The Red Sox scored a run in the top of the thirteenth to take a 5-4 lead. Gamel had a single and then took third on another single by Heredia. With two outs pitcher Doug Fister threw a wild pitch that scored Gamel to tie the game. On the same play Heredia hustled and made it around to third base. He came home on an infield single by Jean Segura to win the game.  These three guys are the ones right now that helping the Mariners win.

Heredia will be starting once again Wednesday because Sale is a lefty and they want to be sure that Jarrod Dyson’s toe is in better shape.

The Mariners will have Thursday off and then have a series against the New York Mets. The Mets will be throwing three right handers in that series so Dyson should be back in action. Dyson and Heredia have been platooning in centerfield depending on whether a lefty or righty is pitching. With the struggle of Mitch Haniger and the great play of Heredia I expect that Heredia start in the place of Haniger at least once in the series. At least we know that he deserves to be playing more if not all the time. Gamel likely will move to right field in place of Haniger at least once with Heredia playing in left field. Valencia who has been struggling lately and struck out three times on Tuesday could take a rest over the weekend as well which would mean the Mariners would start Gamel at first base. Now that Taylor Motter was sent down to Tacoma this week would mean that Gamel is probably the backup first baseman. Valencia who has been playing pretty good in the most part even on the defensive side will take the bench at least once. He most likely enters later in the game for defense.

Whatever the case we will be seeing a lot of Heredia and Gamel in the games since they are hustling so much. This along with the speed of Dyson will help out the Mariners a lot. We hope that the next time that Felix pitches he rebounds and pitches a good game. Andrew Moore takes the mound against the Red Sox in Wednesday’s game. We all hope that he pitches better than the previous two outings to give the Mariners a fighting chance against Sale. Go M’s.