After rough start, Logan Gilbert rights himself to help Mariners beat Braves

ATLANTA — Logan Gilbert’s second pitch of the game — a 96-mph fastball — was dumped into center field for a leadoff single by Ronald Acuna.

His fourth pitch of the game, also a 96-mph fastball, was hit to deep left-center by Matt Olson for a two-run homer.

His fifth pitch of the game was sent back up the middle by Sean Murphy for a single.

Five pitches and three batters into the game, Gilbert and the Mariners were down two runs and trending toward more.

“That’s not really the start you are looking for,” Gilbert said.

But Gilbert was able to reel in his outing, turning to his entire pitch repertoire and going away from any normal tendencies that a stacked Braves lineup might expect, not allowing another run over the next five innings.

The Mariners’ offense produced a performance that resembled something more than adequate, executing in situational-hitting plate appearances and getting a timely two-run homer from Eugenio Suarez to earn a 7-3 victory over the Braves.

The usual strong starting pitching, an improved outing from an effective but highly used bullpen and a reappearance of an offense that’s absent for stretches allowed the Mariners to look like the team people expected — at least for a night.

“Complete game tonight,” manager Scott Servais said. “We have a good chance to have a winning road trip tomorrow, win this series and go back home. So really happy about this one tonight.”

The win snapped a three-game losing streak. The Mariners will go for the series win against the team with the National League’s best winning percentage with right-hander George Kirby getting the start.

Gilbert pitched six innings, allowing just the two runs on four hits with one walk and nine strikeouts.

Gilbert’s 11th pitch might have turned his entire start around. Having already coaxed Austin Riley to hit into a much-needed force out at second on his seventh pitch, Gilbert got ahead of left-handed hitting Eddie Rosario 0-2.

Catcher Tom Murphy called for a split-finger fastball, something they believed they could use effectively vs. the aggressive Braves hitters. It was nowhere near the plate. Undeterred, Murphy called for the same pitch again. This time Gilbert executed for a swinging strike three where Rosario was well out in front of it with an awkward swing.

“A lot of it is how they react to it and also how I feel, too,” Gilbert said. “It’s a combination of those two things, especially early in the game like that. It was like, ‘OK, we can at least try it out a little more, see what’s going on.’ And for the rest of the night, it felt good enough to use in a lot of situations.”

It wouldn’t be the last time he threw the splitter. There were more coming in the innings that followed.

After Gilbert walked Ozzie Albies with two outs, he came back to strike out Marcell Ozuna to end the inning.

The Ozuna strikeout was the first of 15 straight hitters Gilbert retired. Austin Riley broke up the stretch with a two-out single in the sixth inning, but Gilbert came back to get Rosario to pop out.

During his outing, Gilbert threw the splitfinger a career-high 26 times, generating seven swings and misses.

It was a difference-maker pitch.

“We talked about it before the game,” Servais said. “I thought it’d be a good pitch against this lineup. Everybody knows Logan’s got a really good fastball, but it was getting them off that. His splitter is a good pitch. It’s got late action on it. He’s gaining more confidence with it. And it was really key tonight.”

Why was it effective?

Gilbert throws the pitch exactly like his fastball. So the arm slot is identical and it made it difficult for the Braves to differentiate the two.

“I think it was coming out of the right slot, the right tunnel,” he said. “That’s the main thing with that pitch, especially trying to make it look like a fastball. We were able to use it in different counts, not just two strikes, but also a couple early. I think when they’re looking fastball it helps me out.”

As for the offense, the Mariners went into the game, knowing they would see a variety of different pitchers with the Braves making a bullpen start.

Veteran Jesse Chavez pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit. But the Mariners roughed up his replacement, Michael Tonkin, including a three-run third inning. Jarred Kelenic and Suarez delivered back-to-back singles to start the inning. The Mariners loaded the bases on an error by Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia.

Playing in front of friends and family, Georgia native Taylor Trammell singled to right to score a run. Jose Caballero followed with a sac fly to center and J.P. Crawford ripped a RBI single into right field for his 500th career hit.

Needing the innings, the Braves sent Tonkin back out for the fifth. He issued walk to Julio Rodriguez, who walked three times on the night. Kelenic followed with a single to right and Rodriguez advanced to third on a miscue by Acuna in the outfield. The extra 90-feet allowed Suarez to score him with a sac fly. Hernandez followed with a RBI single to right to make it 5-2.

“Our situational hitting was much better,” Servais said. “It just makes the offense roll and it takes pressure off the next guy when you’re doing the right things at the plate.”

Suarez broke the game open, clobbering a two-run homer in the seventh off a first-pitch fastball from Kirby Yates Suarez’s fifth homer of the season punctuated a solid offensive performance. The ball went over the fence in dead center. It was a 432-foot blast.

“We’ve been grinding and we’ve tried to do our job, play better baseball, have better at-bats and compete,” Suarez said. “In game like this, we’ve just got to compete. We try to do the little things like this, it’s very important to our team.”