SEATTLE — Just when it seemed the Seattle Mariners hit rock bottom Wednesday night, they hit back with four two-out runs in the eighth inning in a rousing 8-7 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.
Jean Segura pulled a two-run single through the left side after Jarrod Dyson served a two-run double into short right field.
“That’s a momentum-builder right there,” Dyson said. “To have the lead, get it taken from you, then come back and take the lead, it’s something to build on. That’s something we needed right there.”
Segura said he wasn’t sure his grounder would find a hole.
“I just hit it,” he said, “and put my head down and ran to the base. Then I heard the crowd going crazy, and I thought, ‘Oh, it went through. Thank you.’”
And this time, after two failed attempts earlier this season, Edwin Diaz closed out a victory over the Angels. He gave up a two-out homer to Kole Calhoun and hit Mike Trout with a pitch before striking out Albert Pujols.
“I actually thought he threw the ball much better tonight,” manager Scott Servais said. “He was aggressive. Obviously, Kole Calhoun is seeing the ball very well off of him. Kole is a very good fastball hitter.”
Before their four-run rally, the Mariners appeared headed toward an appalling loss. They carried a 4-0 lead into the sixth inning behind Hisashi Iwakuma — and everything fell apart.
Let’s back up.
Iwakuma sailed through the first four innings but wasn’t the same after getting hit in the left knee by an Andrelton Simmons liner to start the fifth inning. Iwakuma finished the inning but failed to get an out in the sixth.
“He tried to battle through it,” Servais said, “but he obviously wasn’t as sharp when he went back out there for the sixth. Sometimes when it goes with Kuma, it goes pretty quick. That’s what we were seeing tonight.”
Let’s back up further.
The Mariners were leading just 1-0 entering the fifth. That run came on a two-out homer in the first inning by Robinson Cano against Angels starter Ricky Nolasco.
Segura’s two-run homer keyed a three-run fifth that knocked out Nolasco and stretched the lead to 4-0 before the Angels went nuclear in the sixth.
Calhoun started the LA comeback with a leadoff double to right, and Trout followed with a 412-foot bomb to center. When Albert Pujols lined a single, Servais went to the bullpen for Emilio Pagan.
“We were short in the bullpen,” Servais said, “so we tried to figure out a way to piece it together. A tough spot to bring Pagan in, but we knew he was going to have to pitch (when Iwakuma didn’t make it through six innings).”
It was Pagan’s major-league debut and didn’t go well.
Luis Valbuena floated a single to right that moved Pujols to third. Simmons then sent a drive to deep left that Guillermo Heredia caught above the wall. It was a sacrifice fly instead of a three-run homer.
It was also a temporary reprieve.
Ben Revere and Cliff Pennington followed with line-drive singles, which tied the game and put runners at first and third with still only one out. Servais replaced Pagan with Nick Vincent.
The Angels tried to squeeze a run home with a bunt by Martin Maldonado, but first baseman Danny Valencia grabbed the ball and tagged Maldonado as Revere held and Pennington moved to second.
Maldonado apparently didn’t like the tag, said something to Valencia, and the exchange quickly escalated with both benches and bullpens briefly emptying.
Order restored, Escobar rocked a two-run double off the center-field wall. The Angels led 6-4.
And how did the Mariners respond? They took three third strikes in the bottom of the inning. It didn’t look good.
“That was tough for us right there,” Dyson said. “But you know? You just keep grinding until the last out is made. The game wasn’t over when they came back. We knew we were just a crack away from tying it up.”
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