Zunino homers, Felix settles down in M’s 6-4 win over Angels
Published 10:15 pm Friday, August 5, 2016
SEATTLE — Think of it as a case of before and after that somehow worked Friday for the Seattle Mariners as they kicked off their Ken Griffey Jr. Celebration Weekend with a 6-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.
Felix Hernandez survived a shaky first inning that found him in a 3-0 hole after three batters, courtesy of a Mike Trout home run. But Hernandez allowed only one more hit in pitching through the eighth inning.
The Mariners beat up on the shell of Tim Lincecum for six runs in the first inning, which more than erased Trout’s homer. After that, the Mariners put runners on base in every inning. And got nothing more.
It worked out.
Mike Zunino’s three-run homer capped the six-run first inning. He reached down and golfed a changeup from Lincecum with sufficient muscle to clear the left-field wall.
Hernandez (6-4) gave up four runs and three hits in his longest outing of the season. Rookie Edwin Diaz finished off the Angels by striking out the side in a scoreless ninth for his third save in three chances since becoming the club’s closer.
The victory enabled the Mariners to reach the two-thirds point in their season at 55-53. They are seven games behind first-place Texas in the American League West Division and also seven back in the wild-card race.
Lincecum (2-6) exited with one out in the fourth. Nine starts into his comeback, his ERA is 9.16. He is a four-time All-Star who won the National League Cy Young Award in 2008 and 2009 while at San Francisco.
It didn’t start well.
Yunel Escobar whacked Hernandez’s first pitch into the left-center gap for a double. Hernandez followed that with a four-pitch walk to Kole Calhoun, which got the game to Trout.
Who crushed a 1-1 change-up for a 425-foot homer to left.
The Angels led 3-0.
The Mariners answered with six runs.
Singles by Nori Aoki, Seth Smith, Robinson Cano produced one run before a squib single by Nelson Cruz loaded the bases with no outs.
Kyle Seager flied out to short right, but Adam Lind drove an RBI single off the right field wall. Leonys Martin tied the game with a sacrifice fly to right.
Zunino then fought back from an 0-2 hole and worked the count full before flicking Lincecum’s down-and-away changeup 387 feet to left for a three-run homer.
Impressive power. It was Zunino’s sixth homer in 14 games.
The six runs marked the Mariners’ biggest first inning since they scored seven on May 15, 2013 in a 12-2 victory over New York at Yankee Stadium.
It stayed 6-3 until Jett Bandy opened the LA fifth inning with a homer. Lind then whiffed on Cliff Pennington’s grounder to first, but Pennington tried for second and was thrown out by Smith from right field.
