SEATTLE_On his 105th pitch of the game, Mike Leake uncorked a nasty, biting slider to strike out Marcus Semien of the Oakland A's swinging on a 1-2 count, stranding a runner on second and ending the top of the seventh.
Perhaps they were out of practice having not seen it much this season or in quite a while, but soon the Seattle Mariners fans in the crowd of 19,030 on Friday night slowly began to build their applause as the newest Seattle starter walked toward the dugout. Then it began to dawn on most of them just how rare this circumstance was for this season. They soon rose to their feet and increased their ovation worthy of the outing.
In his first game as a Mariner after being acquired in a trade Wednesday and spending all day Thursday relocating to Seattle, Leake gave the Mariners seven complete innings and allowed just two runs, propelling them to a 3-2 win over the A's and snapping a five-game losing streak.
Wait, seven innings?
Yes, manager Scott Servais wasn't forced to go to the heavily reinforced bullpen, thanks to September roster expansion, early in the game and start matching up innings after two times through the lineup. This was a legitimate big-league start. And the Mariners haven't gotten many of them this season. It was just the 22nd time this season that a Seattle starter had pitched seven complete innings in an outing. That's 22 times out of 135 games. And just the 17th time a pitcher had gone seven innings and allowed two runs or less.
Mike Zunino got the Mariners their first run of the game, providing another example of his freakish strength and raw power. Zunino muscled a solo homer to right field off Oakland A's starter Sean Manaea to cut the lead to 2-1. It was Zunino's 20th homer of the season in just 317 at-bats.
The Mariners tied the game later in the inning when Jean Segura singled to left, stole second and scored on Mitch Haniger's RBI single up the middle. Kyle Seager gave them a lead with a sac fly to deep right to score Haniger. But Robinson Cano was thrown out at third after tagging up at second to end the inning with Nelson Cruz waiting to hit.
Leake and the bullpen made the three runs stand up. Marc Rzepczynski and Nick Vincent combined to work a scoreless eighth, and Edwin Diaz notched save No. 31 with a 1-2-3 ninth.
