“It’s tremendous”, said Mariners center fielder Leonys Martin, who walked twice and scored two runs in the second. To take a positive tonight, we fought to the end and had a chance in the ninth. “That’s what you want”.
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In three of the past four games played by the two teams at Safeco Field, Trout has hit a three-run homer to put Los Angeles ahead 3-0 before the Angels get their first out.
The Los Angeles Angels haven’t lost back-to-back games since August 19-20.
“That’s baseball”, Trout said with a shrug. Although I’m not real big on moral victories I think the way we battled back is always important.
Trout, who said he was fine hours before Friday night’s 11-8 loss to the Seattle Mariners, crashed his Mercedes into the back of a stationary auto on a Los Angeles freeway, where traffic had come to a stop due to a backup from another accident. The Mariners had 14 batters while taking a 10-4 lead in a nine-run inning that didn’t include an extra-base hit. Offensively, Robinson Cano leads Seattle with 164 hits, Kyle Seager has 86 RBI and Nelson Cruz has 33 home runs.
The Angels tagged on four runs in the top of the ninth, forcing Seattle to turn to closer Edwin Diaz to finish the win. Diaz came on with two outs and two runners on, and he got Trout to fly out to center field to finish the win. Keep fighting. That’s what we’re going to do. Seattle’s unexpectedly quick comeback from Friday’s 4-0 deficit – the Angels’ Jefry Marte added a solo homer in the top of the first – gave a Mariners starting pitcher the win for the first time in a week.
Ben Gamel (0x2, RBI, 2 BB) made his Mariners debut tonight and recorded his first career RBI…also recorded his first career multi-walk game. He pitched six innings Friday, allowing four runs and five hits.
Los Angeles starter Brett Oberholtzer (1-1) didn’t fare almost as well.
The nine-run inning matched a season best.
It was a temporary reprieve because the Mariners absolutely unloaded against Oberholtzer and Chacin in the second.
Ben Gamel walked in his first plate appearance as a Mariner and came all the way around – and easily – on Guillermo Heredia’s double into the left-field corner.
The performance left manager Mike Scioscia wondering what to do about his rotation moving forward. “Obviously it’s not the start that we were looking for or he was looking for”. “We would love to look at Brett, but he didn’t pitch well (Friday)”.
The loss snapped the Angels’ five-game winning streak, and certainly didn’t help the stock of Brett Oberholtzer, who is vying for a spot in next season’s plans.
Juan Graterol hit a run-scoring double in his first major league at-bat, and Kole Calhoun had a two-run single with the bases loaded to make it 11-8. Trout’s auto was left disabled, and occupants of other vehicles involved had to be taken to the hospital.
Marte, batting ninth, led the way and No. 6 hitter Dae-Ho Lee added two singles and two RBIs. The 11 runs by the Mariners were the most they scored in a game since July 23 when Seattle beat the Toronto Blue Jays 14-5.
In came Chacin, who forced in a run by walking Gamel before Heredia’s hard grounder to third turned into two runs and a 5-4 lead.
“I walked the leadoff hitter and it just snowballed from there”, Oberholtzer said. The Los Angeles Angels offense has woken up as of late, and they’ve won five of their last six games when scoring more than three runs. Trout is hitting a whopping.800 (8 for 10) with two home runs and five RBIs against him.
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Ketel Marte also contributed two hits in the party – an RBI single against Oberholtzer that provided the inning’s first run and a two-run single against Chacin that capped the outburst.
