In the end, the night belonged to Hisashi Iwakuma.
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Brock Holt bounced an RBI single up the middle off the glove of diving shortstop Sean O’Malley in the 11th inning and the Boston Red Sox beat the Mariners 3-2 on Thursday night.
Red Sox left fielder Andrew Benintendi hits a single against the Seattle Mariners during the third inning.
Ariel Miranda will make his Mariner debut tonight versus Drew Pomeranz for the Red Sox. While the Red Sox prefer to have their iconic designated hitter in the lineup every day, three games on the bench in a National League ballpark might be exactly what he needs in the midst of an 11-game West Coast trip and an exhausting stretch of 22 road games in 29 games. Mookie Betts greeted reliever Drew Storen with a single to advance Benintendi to second but he was stranded there again after Bogaerts flew out to the warning track in left to end the inning. He allowed two runs, both earned, on eight hits and one walk while striking out five over 6 innings.
The Red Sox struck first on Shaw’s solo homer in the second.
One batter too late, Travis Shaw led off the second inning with a leadoff blast to right field to give Boston a 1-0 lead off Miranda. But at the same time, it was also encouraging to watch Diaz get some experience trying to close a game out against the heart of the order.
Iwakuma struck out seven and walked none, leaving in the eighth after Benintendi’s second hit. The 27-year-old Cuban appeared in one major-league game for the Orioles – he gave up three runs and four hits against Seattle on July 2 – but the Mariners believe he is ready for a bigger role.
With the win, the Red Sox vaulted back past the Tigers and into the second wild-card spot.
The Boston Red Sox are a handful of years removed from their last World Series win, and with the curse fully and seemingly forever broken, it’s time to start leaning on the future.
Pomeranz allowed a bunt single to Shawn O’Malley to lead off the third, but the Sox ended up getting a caught stealing to erase the baserunner.
Two nights earlier, Cano capped a five-run eighth inning with a three-run homer against Abad in a 5-4 comeback victory. It was his 16th of the year. That the Mariners’ third hit. The Mariners are 4-10 in their last 14 games vs. a left-handed starter and 7-2 in their last 9 vs.
The Mariners put two runners aboard in the ninth against Fernando Abad when Farrell opted for Kimbrel to face Robinson Cano, who hit a game-deciding three-run homer off Abad on Tuesday. That’s so it was one of those games or did you but you guys stuff just go one place you don’t you don’t prestigious you know we just have to go out keep playing. Farrell said Ramirez was likely to miss the Seattle series and possible part, if not all, of the upcoming series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. “I pulled out just a little bit, and it was enough for me to misjudge it”.
The Mariners will add two starters to the rotation this next turn.
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STAT PACK: The Mariners became the first American League team to start a Cuban-born pitcher (Ariel Miranda) and two Cuban-born position players (left fielder Guillermo Heredia and center fielder Leonys Martin) in the same game since Minnesota on September 27, 1970.
