With their postseason hopes taking a painful combination of body blows and haymakers over the past three days, most of them coming from the bat of Salvador Perez, the Mariners came into Sunday’s game needing a victory to stop their slide from relevance.
In their time of desperation, the one player who has worn a Mariners uniform longer than anyone else on the field and has never played a game past the regular season, allowed his team to dream for another day and added a few more fans to those who hope to bring him back for another season.
When it seemed like the Mariners were trending toward a disastrous four-game sweep, Kyle Seager smashed a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning, providing the difference in the Mariners’ 4-3 win over the Kansas City Royals.
Even if victory didn’t provide immediate help in the race for the American League postseason, the Mariners stopped losing ground.
The situation wasn’t trending toward the positive in the seventh inning for the Mariners. With one out in the top of the inning and working on what was likely going to be the final inning of yet another solid outing in August, Mariners starter Marco Gonzales left a fastball in the middle of the zone to Michael A. Taylor. With one quick swing and a fly ball into the upper deck, the Mariners’ 2-1 lead was gone.
But Seager broke the 2-2 tie in the bottom of the inning. With two outs, Mitch Haniger singled to center, bringing Seager to the plate.
After dealing with a sore lower back early in the series, Seager hammered a deep fly ball to right-center for his 31st homer of the season. It was a career high.
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