Mariners closer Edwin Diaz, who touched 101 miles per hour on the gun, gave up a run and loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, but used his off-speed pitches effectively to strike out Jefry Marte and get Andrelton Simmons to ground out for his eighth save in eight chances. He is now ideal in eight save opportunities.
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But, brother, it wasn’t a smooth ride to the end.
ATLANTA – Kyle Gibson threw his first nine-inning complete game and Minnesota overcame two hits from Dansby Swanson in his big league debut to beat Atlanta. Jett Bandy kept the inning alive with a single, and Pennington pulled a line drive into the corner for just his second triple since 2014 to score Bandy easily.
Escobar raced to third, and Trout took second on the throw. Relief pitching on Tuesday night struggled for the first time in what has felt like months. A one-out walk to Calhoun loaded the bases and brought Trout to the plate.
Jefry Marte’s pinch-hit single scored Simmons to make it 6-2. During that stretch, which covers 55 innings, Iwaukuma has compiled a 2.78 ERA while collecting 41 strikeouts and issuing only 10 walks. He then fired off balance to first to get Simmons for the third out of the inning.
That finished Skaggs, who was making his fifth start since returning from a two-year absence while recovering from Tommy John surgery. The 35-year-old native of Tokyo scattered 10 hits over 14 1/3 scoreless innings in home victories over Boston and the Tigers before giving up three runs over 5 1/3 frames in a win at Oakland on Saturday. Storen then watched as Martin faced down a Pujols drive to deep right center and made a lovely running catch for the final out of the inning. “If we put up a lot of zeros, we are going to win games”.
Then Caminero. Then Wilhelmsen.
Yunel Escobar opened the LA first inning with a bad-hop single that handcuffed first baseman Dae-Ho Lee. Zunino’s hit was for his 4th double of the season, this one off of LAA RHP Jhoulys Chacin. The solo shot pushed the lead to 3-1.
A pinch-hitter and a pitching change resulted in Franklin Gutierrez hitting a weak fly to center against Jose Valdez, who then struck out Cano and retired Cruz on a grounder to short. McCutchen’s homer, his 17th, capped a six-run rally in the fifth inning that chased Giants starter Matt Cain (4-8).
The Mariners went ahead in the seventh when reliever J.C. Ramirez threw two wild pitches and overthrew first base on a routine groundout. Nelson Cruz has 33 career homers against the Angels. Chris Iannetta hit a hard single off the glove of a diving Escobar to force a run in. Bandy lined a slider from Iwakuma into the lower left field stands for his eighth home run of the season.
Stats: Trout is hitting.309 (129 for 418) with 23 home runs, 94 runs and 77 RBIs in 120 games. He was on second and Mike Trout was on first when Albert Pujols hit a sharp ground ball to Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager. Seager took the throw from Leonys Martin and threw to second for the out. The American League average, entering Wednesday, was 29.3 percent… It was his 10th home run on the first pitch, the most in baseball. He has four hits in his last 51 at-bats… It marks his fourth straight season in double figures.
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The Angels struck back with two runs later in the inning by capitalizing on Seager’s error after putting runners at first and second with one out. No center fielder has done it three times. Roenicke now serves as the Angels’ third-base coach.
