Mariners get a good break, finish two-game sweep of Braves
In baseball, luck is supposed to come and go. Players and coaches believe it will eventually even out in the end.
But it hasn’t felt that way for the Mariners the since the All-Star Game. Their games been littered with a string of misfortunate events and unlucky bounces that have led to a myriad of one-run losses and other heartbreaking defeats.
They felt they were due for a change and Chris Young and Chris Taylor delivered.
It’s happened in the last two days at Safeco Field with those breaks seeming to come off the bat of Taylor. For the second straight day, Taylor’s good fortune led to the decisive runs and a 7-3 victory for the Mariners over the reeling Braves, who have lost eight straight.
On a perfect Wednesday afternoon, the Mariners improved to 59-54 on the season. They banged out 12 hits, including two doubles and two homers. But it was Taylor’s “oops” of a single that loomed large.
“Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good,” McClendon said.
In the bottom of third inning with the Mariners’ trailing 3-2, Taylor’s excuse-me check swing off of Julio Teheran, unleashed a slow rolling, 38 hop ground ball to the right side of the infield. It should have been the third out of the inning. Instead, no Braves fielder could make a play on it in time to get Taylor at first base, prolonging the inning.
“Well I got it off the barrel,” he said chuckling. “Right off the bat, obviously I was upset with myself. But when I looked up, I saw no one was there. Those are the ones you can never take for granted. I will take any kind of hit.”
That well-measured single should’ve-been out proved costly when Logan Morrison stepped up and hit the second pitch he saw from Teheran – a 91 mph fastball - deep into the seats in right-center for a three-run homer. It gave the Mariners a 5-3 lead and they never looked back, actually adding a few insurance runs.
Seattle roughed up Teheran, who came into the game with a 2.69 ERA, for six runs on nine hits in six innings of work.
The Mariners jumped on him immediately, scoring one run in the bottom of the first on Kyle Seager’s RBI single to right field.
Atlanta answered with three runs in the third off of Seattle starting pitcher Young. Tommy La Stella drew a bases loaded walk to force a run across and Freddie Freeman doubled home two runs. The Mariners got a break when Jesus Sucre was able to make a nice leaping grab on the relay throw home to get La Stella at home for the second out. Young struck out Upton for the second time in the game to end the inning.
Down 3-1, Seattle rallied with a Dustin Ackley solo home run to right field. For the hot-hitting Ackley, it was his third homer in six games and seventh of the season.
“I will take it,” Ackley said. “I had two strikes and I was in battle mode. I got a slider I could hit and I was able to keep it fair.”
Teheran came back to retire Robinson Cano and Kendrys Morales. But Seager singled to right – his second of three hits in the game – and Taylor followed with the check-swing single, setting it up for Morrison. The big first baseman came into the game with a mini six-game hitting streak, but hadn’t homered since July 11 – a span of 67 plate appearances.
The direct and immediate answer to the Braves’ three runs was something that the Mariners need to do more of in the final few months of the season.
They weren’t finished with Teheran. Cano led off the fifth with a double and later scored on Taylor’s sac fly to left field.
In the seventh Cano doubled with one out and scored on Morales’ ground ball single to right field to make it 7-3. The seven runs were the most the Mariners have scored since a 13-2 win over the Astros on July 1 in Houston.
All the runs secured a win for Young (10-6), who worked five innings, giving up three runs on seven hits with six strikeouts.