Go away, and while you’re away, work on getting the big-league baseball team you so deserve.
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Safeco Field served as home for the most important Mariners game of the season Monday night – maybe their most important in, oh, 15 years – and you turned the place into a Toronto Blue Jays fan fest.
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma, center, stands on the mound as he waits to be pulled in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, in Seattle.
That might not be hard considering Seattle mustered just three hits in the game and was held without one for the first six innings.
Martin and Saunders each homered off Iwakuma during the Blue Jays’ big inning. Estrada retired the next three Mariners but when he walked the leadoff man in the eighth, Gibbons went to the bullpen for Jason Grilli.
Travis sent a soft single to right that fell just fair inside the line between Cano, racing out from second base, and right fielder Franklin Gutierrez.
“It was a line drive and they were playing no doubles”, Cano said. “I’m kind of hoping that this series sparks him”.
Seattle had another glimmer in the ninth when Martin hit a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth off Osuna, but Gamel struck out looking to cap Osuna’s 34th save. “It happens”, Servais said. As things now stand, the Blue Jays would play the Baltimore Orioles in the one game, sudden-death wild card game. But sprinkled in those four starts was a start on August 29 at Baltimore where he pitched seven innings, giving up one run on four hits with a walk and four strikeouts. If I’m not mistaken, we play the same thing tomorrow. “Everything just felt just a little bit off”, Walker said. And I don’t think anybody three weeks ago thought this was going to be easy, but all the sudden we made it interesting.
The Blue Jays scored eight runs after Iannetta’s gaffe.
20 game victor J.A. Happ, has held the Orioles hitters to a career.230 batting average. He lost a no-hit bid in the eighth inning against the Boston Red Sox on June 5, and also pitched hitless ball into the eighth inning in consecutive starts in June 2015.
Toronto’s Josh Donaldson was ejected in the seventh inning arguing with plate umpire Chris Conroy after being called out on strikes. Donaldson had objected to the second strike in the at-bat, saying he had checked his swing. Donaldson immediately got in Conroy’s face and was quickly tossed.
Before that, though, Toronto second baseman Devon Travis aided the Mariners by enduring a a rough third inning – although it won’t look that way in the box score.
Happ probably is the only other pitcher in Major League Baseball with a reasonable chance to reach 20 wins. Jon Lester, Max Scherzer, Jake Arrieta and Corey Kluber all have 17 but are running out of starts to get to 20. Happ has won 13 of his last 14 decisions. Iwakuma allowed just one run in 6 1/3 innings in his last start against the Angels. Estrada allowed two baserunners in just one inning, the fourth, and didn’t allow a Mariners runner to reach third. Russell Martin and Michael Saunders each hit a two-run homer as Toronto moved a game ahead of Baltimore.
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Games like this used to be common for the Toronto Blue Jays. Carrera added an RBI single two batters later and came around from first base to score on Devon Travis’s pop-up single near the right-field line.Encarnacion, who started the inning with a strikeout before nine consecutive batters reached base, added an RBI double in a frame that saw the Blue Jays pile up eight hits and a walk sandwiched between the first and second outs.Martin’s two-run homer tied the score 2-2 after Cano drove in two runs in the third with a odd, seeing-eye triple.With two outs and runners on second and third, Cano hit a sharp grounder to the left of Toronto second baseman Travis, who slid to make a play on the ball – only to have it bounce off his knee and fly all the way into the right-field corner.Six consecutive Toronto hitters recorded hits to chase Seattle starter Hisashi Iwakuma in the fourth.
