Seattle native Blake Snell shuts down M’s in Rays 3-0 win

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Mariners have won just five games this season when scoring three runs or less. Of course, they’ve won zero games when they’ve failed to score, which is what happened on Sunday at Tropicana Field.

Seattle’s chance to complete not just a three-game series sweep, but a season-series sweep of the Rays, ended with its offense that had scored seven runs in the last three games being shut down and shut out in a 3-0 loss to the Rays by a kid that was born in Seattle and grew up going to Safeco Field.

Blake Snell dominated the Mariners for his best outing in what has been an otherwise frustrating season. The former Shorewood standout tossed seven shutout innings while allowing two hits with two walks and eight strikeouts.

“You have to give a lot of credit to Blake Snell,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “He has really good stuff and he had it all working today. We got beat.”

A lanky left-hander with mid-90s fastball, a biting slider, a big breaking curveball and a plus changeup, Snell has been projected for stardom in an organization that cultivates outstanding starting pitchers. He was rated as the No. 12 overall prospect in baseball coming into 2016 by Baseball America. He debuted at Yankee Stadium at the tender age of 23.

But like many pitchers that move to the big leagues that quickly, he struggled as the league adjusted to him. This year has been a grind. He made the rotation out of spring training as expected, but went 0-4 with a 4.71 ERA in his first eight starts. Having four plus pitches mattered little when he couldn’t command them.

He was demoted to Triple-A Durham to try to correct some mechanical issues that led to his struggles. Snell dominated there, posting a 5-0 record with a 2.66 ERA. But that success like so often is the case didn’t translate to immediate success upon his return to the big leagues in late June. Snell went 1-2 with a 4.85 ERA in his next eight starts.

Still, he put it all together on Sunday, looking every bit the prospect hype.

“I wish it would have come together a lot sooner, but I feel really good about where I’m at,” Snell said. “I just have to keep working and getting better.”

The Mariners knew that Snell’s record 1-6 record and 4.78 ERA wasn’t completely indicative of what he was capable of doing on the mound.

“He’s one of their top prospects,” Servais said. “We’ve seen him before. You can get to him early sometimes if you can run his pitch count up. But he had three really good pitches today. When the changeup is that big of a weapon for him, it’s tough when he’s throwing 95 mph. We thought we could get something going, but he was really tough today.”

The Mariners had minimal hard contact with just two singles off him and only one runner reach scoring position. That came in the seventh inning when he gave up a one-out single to Robinson Cano and walked Mitch Haniger with two outs. But with his pitch count nearing 100, he got his former teammate Taylor Motter to ground into a force out to end his inning and his outing.

“I’ve seen Blake phenomenal and I’ve seen Blake bad,” Motter said. “When he has stuff like he did, he’s a pretty good pitcher.”

What made him effective?

“He was throwing strikes,” Motter said. “When I’ve seen him bad, he isn’t throwing strikes. He lives with his fastball, changeup and that 12-6 curveball is pretty good. Today he was able to get the fastball over for a strike with that changeup. If you can get a deep count against him, he may leave you one to hit.”

The lack of offense from the Mariners wasted a solid start from Yovani Gallardo, who pitched into the seventh inning and recorded an out, which has happened just three times in the last 23 games for Seattle. Gallardo essentially made three regrettable pitches in the game.

He left a 2-0 fastball over the middle of he plate to the first batter of the game – Kevin Kiermaier, who hammered it for a homer to center. It’s a mistake he’s made in the past three outings, giving up homers to the first batter of the game. Mariners pitchers have given up 14 leadoff homers to start games this season.

“It’s not like they’re bad pitches,” Gallardo said of the homers. “Not much I can do other than start making quality pitches from the first pitch of the game, make them even better.”

From there, Gallardo worked the next five innings without allowing a run while working around a leadoff triple in the third inning.

The two other lamentable pitches came in a seventh inning he wouldn’t finish. Gallardo hit Jesus Sucre with a 1-2 fastball to start the inning. And with one out and facing his last batter, Gallardo left a 2-2 fastball over the outer half of the plate that light-hitting Adeiny Hechavarria drove over the wall in right center for a 3-0 lead. It was just Hechavarria’s third homer of the season.

“In that situation, we aren’t trying to get beat pull side,” Gallardo said. “So what happens, he hits one out to right-center. It was already frustrating hitting Sucre with two strikes.”

With Marc Rzepczynski warmed and ready to face the run of lefties after Hechavarria if needed and not wanting to burn a right-hander for one batter, Servais stayed with Gallardo.

But the added two runs mattered little with the Rays bullpen working the final three innings scoreless.

Seattle, now a 1 1/2 games back in the wild-card race, heads to Atlanta for the second stop in the team’s two-week, four-city road trip.