SEATTLE — Here, again, the Mariners showed Saturday afternoon why they remain a threat to mount a postseason push over the the season’s final two months after four months of tedium.
They are resilient.
The Mariners scratched out and hung on for a 3-2 victory over the New York Mets against an in-form Jacob deGrom roughly 14 hours after letting a victory slip away Friday night in the series opener.
“You’ve just got to grind,” said center fielder Jarrod Dyson, who had a two-run single in the second inning. “That’s just baseball period. Every game is going to be a grind.
“At least, that’s what you think going into the game. We know what we’re up against. We know what we have to do. It’s just a matter of going out there and grinding it all together.”
Veteran right-hander Yovani Gallardo (5-7) outpitched deGrom (12-4) before the Mariners’ bullpen survived some shaky moments in closing out the victory — a victory that came at a cost.
Right fielder Mitch Haniger was hit in the face by a deGrom fastball in the second inning. Haniger left the game under his own power but will likely require plastic surgery to repair lacerations on his face.
“He’s got no fractures,” manager Scott Servais said. “His teeth are OK, but he’s got a pretty severe laceration in his upper lip. He’s getting some work done on that now. It could have been a lot worse.”
The Mariners are expected to place Haniger on the disabled list prior to Sunday’s series finale and make a corresponding move to replace him on the roster.
“He’ll be out a little while,” Servais said. “We’ll let him heal up. He will be back.”
The Mariners (52-53) scored three early runs, aided by a costly error, before deGrom went into lockdown mode. Dyson’s two-run single in the second inning was a blooper that fell in short center field.
“I was looking heater the whole time,” Dyson said. “He backdoored a slider to get ahead, and then I just tried to zone him up. He left a slider over the plate, and I was able to hit it.”
The Mariners capitalized on a throwing error by Mets second baseman Neil Walker for a another run in the third inning. Nelson Cruz’s sacrifice fly made it 3-0.
That was it. DeGrom permitted just one walk over his final 12 hitters and struck out 10 in his six innings.
Gallardo carried that 3-0 lead into the sixth inning before exiting after giving up a pair of two-out singles. Tony Zych forced in one run with two walks before ending the inning.
Marc Rzepczynski then worked around a two-on, no-out jam in a scoreless seventh. Nick Vincent blew through the Mets in the eighth inning before Edwin Diaz gave up one run in the ninth before securing his 19th save.
“It’s a good win,” Servais said. “It really is. DeGrom is one of the best pitchers in the National League. Last night, I felt we let that one get away a little bit.
“The goal is to keep winning series, and we have a chance to do that (Sunday) when we run (James) Paxton out there.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
