Mariners Game Recap: M’s Out-Dueled For Sweep in 3-0 Loss

The Mariners received a strong start from their King, but came up short in the series finale against the Halos.

Now that Felix Hernandez had surpassed two illustrious Mariner records for strikeouts and wins in his career, it is a hope that he would relax and his game would fall back into Cy Young form. Yet, after a rough opening for the king- allowing a 1st pitch single and then giving a free pass- the afternoon didn’t start as planned. He did come back though, and with a vengeance, taking down the 3,4 and 5 batters in order, including appeasing the Kings Court with his first K of the night.

As for Hector Santiago, the Los Angeles Angels starter, he too stumbled out of the gate, hitting Nori Aoki flush on the shoulder pad. Santiago followed suit, recovering with a double play ball and then a groundout to finish the first.

In the second, Hernandez raised his WHIP giving up back-to-back singles, but he saved himself, forcing a double-play ground out, Seager-Cano-Lee style. With three singles and one walk allowed through two, his day continued to be an unconventional start for the King.

Santiago on the other hand looked as if he was planning to over throw the king in his own castle, taking down soldiers, Nelson Cruz, Chris Iannetta and Kyle Seager in succession to maintain his early no-hit bid.

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Hernandez sent out his own reinforcements, the curve, fastball and change; they breezed past the hitters with ease the first two batters, fanning both, but was attacked by the mighty Mike Trout who tallied a single to left field, putting a dent in the kings armor. Hernandez was not hindered by the small breach of his defense as he took down the Angels other power-hitting force Albert Pujols via the strikeout, completing the inning sweep of K’s, much more in line of what the Kings court is accustom to seeing.

It was more of the same for Santiago who struck out Dae-Ho Lee and the easily fought passed Franklin Gutierrez, and then came the newest Mariner, Shawn O’Malley who was making his 2016 M’s debut after being called up from AAA Tacoma. The newest Mariner went down on strikes to end the third. The Mariners were still searching for the first hit of the game after 3 innings.

Hernandez stood tall with his weapons, continuing his strikeout assault, fanning the side- six of the last seven he faced- now bringing his four inning total to seven punch outs. After it appeared that Santiago was going to continue cruising towards a win in this battle of pitching performances, the Mariners offensive starts, Cano and Cruz, started a two-out rally, that unfortunately mounted to nothing and even was another no-hit inning for the New Jersey native. Cano and Cruz were the first M’s runners left on base.

O’Malley had a chance to prove to his commander that his call up was justified as a solid smash to deep center by Johnny Giavotella headed his way, but it sailed over his head, and the Angels set in play an offensive that was looking promising to produce the game’s first run. And despite two more strikeouts for Hernandez to put the inning back in his favor, a softly hit single through the gap brought home the Angels first run. A ground-out stopped the damage and ended the top half of the inning, but Santiago now had the upper-hand in this battle of wits and strikes.

Mariners announcer, Mike Blowers correctly described Santiago’s performance as, “effectively wild”. The Angels pitcher had already hit two batters before nearly hitting Franklin Gutierrez in the bottom of the fifth- not to mention his one walk- but missing his spots was the right formula to keep the Mariners out of the hit column through 5.

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The top of the sixth got underway and then it was over. Felix was economical with his pitches and forced a speedy three outs to keep the game rolling. Now all he would need is some run support to take the one of his back.

O’Malley did what the rest of the veterans couldn’t do to start the bottom half of the inning with a squib infield single that gave the Mariners their first hit of the game. Could this be the breakthrough for the M’s that would help them to avoid the impending series sweep? No, that single was just a red herring, as the rest of the Mariners couldn’t muster anything of the sort, and then the inning was over.

Another fast-paced inning for the king easily retired the Angel half to keep the Mariner hopes alive; maybe the seventh inning stretch would loosen the team up to finally put some runs on the scoreboard. Hernandez anxiously paced back and forth in the dugout as a pair of Mariners came a few feet shy of homers, both powering the ball to the warning track, but both shots resulted in outs. Iannetta broke the streak of outs with a well-hit single to left, a rally that started and ended with him.

Hernandez came to the mound in the eighth and struggled a little bit, giving up his second walk and the seventh hit of the game before manager Scott Servais took the ball out of his hands to finish a wonderful performance for the king who scattered his mistakes brilliantly, to keep the Mariners within arms reach of the lead over the 7.1 innings he pitched. Reliever Nick Vincent came in to replace the king, and one mistake cost the Mariners two runs to extend the Angel lead to 3-0. The two runs that came across the plate were Hernandez’s responsibility, so his game total ended at three earned runs given up. Vincent did get out of the inning, but the damage had been done and castle that is Safeco Field, became fairly deflated with defeat looming.

Santiago didn’t let up, despite already bettering the King in their match-up. He took down the Mariner side in the eighth with ease, including completing the frame with his fifth strikeout of the game.

Next: King Felix on the Mound to Stop Sweep by Angels

Mike Montgomery came to the mound in the ninth to finish off the Angels for the day before heading to the final frame of the game for the last chance for the Mariners to rally to avoid the sweep. Santiago would not be the man to face the Mariners in the ninth, but it was closer, Joe Smith who shut down the Mariners in the pitching duel. This was the first time the Mariners were swept this season since their home-opening series against the Oakland Athletics.