Mariners Game Recap: Smith Slam Helps M’s Sweep O’s in Seattle

The Mariners completed their first four-game sweep since 2012 when they defeated the Baltimore Orioles 9-4 on Sunday, in large part due to the unmatched power of Seth Smith.

Even though it looked like the Mariners would fall victim to a vintage Ubaldo Jimenez performance early, everything changed when the weekend’s star, Seth Smith, stepped up for his first at-bat, and set even more personal history than he did yesterday- he hit a home run for the third straight game.

In the third, after the Mariners hadn’t been able to reach base via a hit through the first two innings- Kyle Seager did get on first after being walked in the second- they loaded the bases by singling twice- one each for Leonys Martin and Ketel Marte after a Chris Iannetta walk- Smith had the chance to make it four straight games with a home run. Having fallen behind in the count 0-2, Smith wasn’t going to let Jimenez strike him out, so he countered him with solid contact on the third pitch and pelted it into the right field stand, extending his career-best home run streak to four games. It was also Smith’s first career grand slam and tenth of the season, setting more history; this Mariners squad became the first in their history to have seven players with ten or more long bombs. The score was 4-0, a comfortable lead.

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Mariners starter, Hisashi Iwakuma, unfortunately made that 4-0 lead feel much more uncomfortable then it needed to be. Not only did he allow a run in his nineteenth straight start going back to last year (and all seventeen this year) but he also got knocked around for double-digit hits for the second time in three starts. Furthermore he got hit in six of the seven innings (6.1 to be exact) he took the mound. Iwakuma allowed all four Oriole runs that crossed the plate on this afternoon, luckily, the M’s bats were still sizzling, as they have been all weekend.

The Mariners posted double-digit hits for the third straight game, helping the team to bring in five more runs to bolster their lead. In the fourth after Iwakuma had already allowed three of the four runs, but Marte stepped up again, now blasting a ground-rule double followed by a unusual situation where Jimenez balked, scoring Iannetta. The score was now 6-3, and a later pair of runs off of back-to-back double from Seager and Adam Lind would solidify the sweep, as the Mariners would go onto win 9-4.

Next: M’s Smash 5 Homers, Beat O’s 12-6

This huge four-game sweep powered by power and decent pitching, builds good momentum with their next series, which starts tomorrow against one of their surging division rivals, the Houston Astros.