Mariners Win in 10th

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The Seattle Mariners started out slowly again in a game that is important to get them into the wild card against a division foe that has given up on the season themselves in the Oakland A’s.

  Ariel Miranda who has struggled recently in his starting outings giving up multiple home runs had another one of those kinds of starts. In the first inning Khris Davis hit his 30^th home run of the season with two runners on base to take a 3-0 lead.  The Mariners did score one run in the 3^rd inning however the A’s added two more in the bottom of the same inning to make the score 5-1.

Ryon Healy now the first baseman of the A’s after Yonder Alonso was traded over to the Mariners on Sunday hit another home run off of Miranda his twenty-first of the season to make the score 6-1. The fifth inning was the last inning that the A’s scored. At this point it looked like the Mariners would lose an important game however the Mariners made their move in the sixth inning scoring two runs in the sixth inning on a Ben Gamel double to make it 6-4. The Mariners scored two more runs one in the seventh and the other to tie on a sacrifice fly by Danny Valencia who was pinch hitting for catcher Mike Zunino.

Now that the Mariners have Yonder Alfonso on the team he and Valencia will platoon at first base. This was something that the Mariners had planned back in spring training with Valencia and Dan Vogelbach who instead was sent to triple A. The Mariners have felt good about the job Valencia has done but could not pass up the chance in getting Alonso on Sunday for Boog Powell. Alonso got his first hit as a Mariner in the sixth inning as part of that rally that allowed the Mariners to score two runs. With Valencia and Alonso to platoon it allows the Mariners to have additional hitter on the bench to pinch hit. Activating Alonso on Tuesday the Mariners placed reliever Dave Phelps on the disabled list because of his elbow he hurt on Sunday in the first game. Now the Mariners have seven pitchers in the bullpen.

Casey Lawrence who relieved for Miranda went two innings giving up a couple runs however didn’t give a run and struck out four. It was a solid outing for him however he could be sent to Tacoma for another reliever to come up to help them out.

The Mariners followed with three relievers who each went an inning without giving up a run. Only one that gave up a hit was Edwin Diaz in the tenth inning who recorded his 24^th save of the season after Leonys Martin hit a home run in the top of the 10^th inning to put the Mariners ahead.

Yovani Gallardo will be on the mound on Wednesday afternoon game for the Mariners before they head home to play four against the Los Angeles Angels.  Gallardo has pitched well in his last couple outings and had pitched a good game against the A’s in April. It will be important that Gallardo stays away from giving up multiple runs in an inning. If he can go six innings giving up three runs or less the Mariners will be in good shape to take both games from the A’s.

The other teams that are in race for the wild card especially the second one lost their games on Tuesday and now the Mariners are tied with them going into Wednesday.

The series in Seattle against the Angels the Mariners should start James Paxton followed by Marco Gonzales making his second start for them in place of Felix Hernandez, Erasmo Ramirez and Ariel Miranda. This will be a great weekend with the Mariners retiring Edgar Martinez number. The games all should be sold out or close to it. The Mariners take care of the A’s on Wednesday and win three out of four against the Angels the Mariners will be in really good shape. Go team!