The Seattle Mariners apparently have had enough of all these one-run games against the Cleveland Indians.
The Mariners hit four home runs — including two in the first inning off Cleveland starter Carlos Carrasco — on their way to a 12-4 route of the Tribe on Saturday. The 12 runs are the most Seattle has scored in a game this season.
Carrasco, who saw his string of 10 consecutive starts without a loss come to an end, is going to have nightmares about facing the Mariners. He’s allowed nine runs in two starts against them this year. In his four other starts, he’s allowed a combined four runs.
And the Mariners didn’t even have all of their offense clicking.
“It’s not like one guy has to carry the load on this club,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “We’ve seen what Mitch Haniger can do and Nelson Cruz today, and Robby (Cano) has probably been our most consistent guy all year.
“We have a good thing going offensively right now.”
This should be telling about how good the Mariners’ offense can be: Haniger entered Saturday tied for second in the majors in RBI and he didn’t drive in or score any of the Mariners’ 12 runs.
Instead, Jean Segura tied his career high with four RBI, and in the first inning he hit his second home run of the year. Cruz followed two batters later with his fifth home run.
“He’s one of the toughest pitchers in the league,” Cruz said of Carrasco. “We just hit everything. You can’t always explain why, but we found a way to score runs.”
Cruz thought about that a little more.
“We have a pretty good lineup,” he said. “We can hit the ball gap to gap and that makes it difficult for pitchers.”
The Mariners led 3-0 entering the third inning when Cano’s sacrifice fly scored Dee Gordon from third — after Gordon stole a base for the 10th time this year. Segura then stole second and Cruz smoked a single to score him, making it 5-1 Mariners.
The Mariners added five more runs in the next inning. Segura hit a two-run single (he started the game 3-for-3) and Cano followed with an opposite-field double to the wall to score Segura. Kyle Seager got in on the home-run action — using a 32-degree launch angle (that’s really high) for a two-run homer into the wind in right field.
That gave Seager sole possession of the sixth-most home runs in Mariners history (157). He needs four more to pass Alvin Davis for fifth-most.
And it gave the Mariners a 10-1 lead.
Later Ryon Healy hit his first home run of the season.
“Top to bottom — it’s a pretty interesting lineup what we can do,” Servais said. “It’s not going to be one guy every day. Everybody can contribute.”
Mariners starter Mike Leake allowed a two-run home run to former Mariner Yonder Alonso in the fourth inning, but he had plenty of margin to work with thanks to the offense.
A quick note on Alonso: The former Mariner has hit four home runs in six games against his former team this season — including a homer in each of the first three games in this series and a grand slam in the season-opening series in Seattle.
Leake lasted six innings for the fourth time in his six starts this season. He allowed six hits and four runs and struck out six.
“When you can go out and get a lead like that, you don’t necessarily work on things, but you can be in more of an aggressive mode and take some chances,” Leake said.
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