Calhoun, Upton homers lead Angels past Mariners 4-3
Published 1:30 am Sunday, September 16, 2018
Herald news services
ANAHEIM, Calif. — No Seattle Mariners comeback this time.
No four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels, either.
Justin Upton hit a three-run homer one night after he hit two home runs, and Kole Calhoun hit a go-ahead shot in the bottom of the seventh as the Mariners just missed the series sweep in a 4-3 loss Sunday.
The Mariners (82-67) had found some long-lost life offensively the first three games of this road trip, but weren’t able to push their streak of at least five runs scored to four games — not even with Daniel Vogelbach’s two-run blast.
They rallied late the night before on Robinson Cano’s go-ahead three-run double in the eighth inning, and had another eighth-inning chance in this one when Mitch Haniger led off with a single. But Denard Span grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, and Cano lined out to left field.
The Mariners had one hit from the fifth inning on against Angels relievers. Ty Buttrey got the save, striking out Ryon Healy, Kyle Seager and Vogelbach in the top of the ninth.
The Mariners played without Nelson Cruz. He’s the latest victim of a virus making its way through the Mariners’ clubhouse, with Cameron Maybin and Jean Segura also missing games.
That created a spot for Vogelbach, the destroyer of Triple-A baseballs.
He made his first start for the Mariners since June 8 and in his second at-bat he smashed the first pitch he saw, a fastball at the top of the strike zone, and sent it 425 feet past the right-field wall for a game-tying two-run homer.
The Mariners had jumped to a 1-0 lead when Dee Gordon singled and Haniger followed with a run-scoring double to left field.
But the Angels erased the lead on one swing by Upton in the bottom of the third.
With two outs, Upton sent Marco Gonzales’ changeup over to center field for a three-run homer, his seventh against the Mariners this season.
He has no more than three homers against any other team, and he had four homers against the Mariners this series alone.
Gonzales didn’t have as clean an outing as his last one. He exited after five innings and limited the damage to just that Upton homer, but he faced frequent traffic. He escaped a first-and-third jam with no outs in the second inning with two strikeouts and a pickoff.
“Marco wasn’t quite as sharp as he was last time out,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “You’ve got to give him a ton of credit. He gutted it out and got through the five innings and gave us a chance in a tie ballgame. In the starts he makes down the stretch, we’re not going to overextend him, but I think it’s important he continues to pitch and finishes the season strong.”
The score remained 3-3 into the seventh inning when Calhoun got a fastball in the middle of the plate and launched it for his 19th homer of the season. That broke an 0-for-25 slump for Calhoun.
“There were some good swings in there …,” Calhoun said of the hitless streak. “If you put a good swing on the ball you definitely feel like it should be a hit but sometimes it’s not and that’s just the game.”
