4/8/23

Mariners 3, Guardians 2

(Cleveland, OH) Coming into Saturday, the Mariners hadn’t lost in Cleveland since June 12th, 2021. That made it five straight wins at Progressive Field and Seattle was looking to make it six straight and earn their first series win of 2023 and give the M’s a chance to complete the sweep on Sunday. The Mariners started fast and Marcon Gonzales had a solid start. A late rally by Cleveland would fall short as the early offense held up as the M’s earned their first series win with a 3-2 victory over the Guardians.

While Marco Gonzales had a much better outing this time around, Cal Quantrill had a rough time once again. Quantrill came into Saturday having not lost at home since 2021 as well so some streak had to give and the early signs said it would not be in Quantrill’s favor. Back-to-back singles by Julio Rodriguez and Ty France had the Mariners threatening early. Eugenio Suarez continued his red hot start to the season with a base hit to left field. J-Rod scored easily to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead only three batters into the game. A few batters later, the Mariners had the bases loaded with just one out. Jarred Kelenic smashed a grounder into right field and everyone moved up 90 feet with France scoring to make it 2-0. That would be the most that Seattle could push across in the opening frame.

Two quick outs recorded by Quantrill in the top of the 2nd made it look like the lead wouldn’t grow in the inning. Ty France doubled down the left field line after a weak throw by Steven Kwan allowed France to reach second base with two outs. France didn’t have time to catch his breath as two pitches later Suarez lined one to left field again. The M’s took advantage of Kwan’s below average arm as France scored from second to make it 3-0 Mariners.

Neither team would score until the bottom of the 5th. Doubles by Andres Gimenez and Myles Straw got Cleveland on the board trailing 3-1. A bloop double for Jose Ramirez in the 7th cut that lead down to one with the Mariners leading 3-1. The Guardians loaded the bases in the 7th with the tying run on third and one out. Gabe Speier continued to win over Mariner fans by getting Josh Naylor to flyout to shallow center field for the second out keeping the runner on third. A groundout to Crawford at short by Oscar Gonzalez brought the threat to an end with the M’s still leading 3-2.

The 9th would be just as stressful. With Paul Sewald protecting a one run lead and facing the top of the Cleveland order, it wasn’t going to be easy. Sewald struck out Steven Kwan to begin the inning before a single by Amed Rosario but the tying run on base and winning run at the plate. A big second out came from Jose Ramirez popping out to Tom Murphy behind home plate. Josh Bell would then earn a walk to move the tying run into scoring position with Josh Naylor coming to the plate. Naylor would roll a grounder to Ty France at first and a flip to Sewald finished off a stressful Seattle win 3-2. The win gave the Mariners their first series victory of 2023.

With their first series victory in the books, the Mariners (4-5) will look to turn it into their first sweep of the year when them and Guardians (5-4) meet for the final time of the regular season at 10:40am on Sunday. George Kirby (0-1, 8.31 ERA) will look to improve upon a tough first outing when he takes on Zach Plesac (0-0, 54.00 ERA) who also had a rough 2023 debut after only going an inning in Oakland.

Matt’s Takeaways

I want to talk about Marco Gonzales today. Marco is not ever going to be a pitcher that goes out and gets 10 strikeouts through seven innings. And he doesn’t need to be. He needs to be just what we saw on Saturday. A contact pitcher that locates his pitches and lets his defense do the rest. When he can locate all of his pitches and avoids falling behind in the count, he is such an effective veteran pitcher. The crafty lefty is the stereotype nowadays but when it comes to Marco, if he can be crafty then the bottom of this rotation will be able to matchup with any other rotation in baseball.

Notable Performances

Mariners

• Eugenio Suarez- 3-4, 2 RBI
• Ty France- 2-5, 2B, 2 R
• Marco Gonzalez (W, 1-0)- 5.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 SO

Guardians

• Myles Straw- 1-2, 2B, RBI, R, 2 BB, SB
• Andres Gimenez- 2-4, 2 2B, R
• Cal Quantrill (L, 0-1)- 5 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO

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