The Mariners are doing it again.
Once again, they’ve found a way to offset a stretch of failure that seemed destined to send them to another missed postseason by answering with a mini-winning streak to keep their postseason hopes alive.
The Mariners got a solid start from Marco Gonzales, typical strong relief work from the bullpen and just enough offense to pick up a 3-1 victory over the Rangers.
It guarantees a win in the three-game series at Globe Life Field with a chance for a sweep to end the season series with the Rangers.
Facing right-hander Mike Foltynewicz for the sixth time this season, and having scored 15 runs on 25 hits off him in 32 2/3 innings, the Mariners seemed poised to put together a big night offensively.
It started out that way when Mitch Haniger was hit by a pitch and Kyle Seager sat on a 1-2 changeup, launching a towering moonshot into the right field seats for a 2-0 lead. The two-run blast was Seager’s 27th homer of the season — the most on the Mariners.
But the Mariners never scored another run against Foltynewicz, who pitched six complete innings, allowing two runs on three hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
The Mariners almost picked up a third run off him in the sixth inning. Haniger worked a one-out walk and Seager smoked a double to the gap in right-center. Third base coach Manny Acta made an aggressive decision to try and score Haniger from first base on the play. But the relay throw from third baseman Yonny Hernandez, who was playing on the right side of the field because of the shift, was caught by catcher Jose Trevino with Haniger about four steps away. He was tagged out easily for the second out of the inning. Ty France grounded out softly to first base to end the inning.
After throwing 108 pitches in a complete game victory over the Rangers in his last outing, Marco Gonzales wasn’t going to be allowed to push his pitch count over triple digits again. He worked into the sixth inning, allowing a base runner in every inning, including the leadoff hitter in three of them. After allowing a leadoff double to Isiah Kiner-Falefa to start the sixth, Gonzales came back to retire Adolis Garcia on a flyball to center field.
With his starter at 92 pitches, Mariners manager Scott Servais went to his bullpen. Right-hander Casey Sadler entered the game and stranded the runner at second, getting a groundout to third and striking out rookie Yohel Pozo.
Gonzales was credited with 5 1/3 shutout innings, allowing six hits with a walk and three strikeouts to improve to 5-5 on the season.
The Rangers cut the lead to 2-1 in the seventh inning with two outs against Mariners reliever Erik Swanson. Andy Ibanez and Jose Trevino hit back-to-back doubles for the Rangers first run. With the tying run on second, Servais went to veteran right-hander Joe Smith to get the final out. He struck out Yonny Hernandez looking to end the threat.
