Marco Gonzales delivered the Mariners' best pitching outing of this shortened season, continuing his dominance over the Angels this season and in his career and leading Seattle to a 2-1 victory in the season-series finale Monday in Anaheim, California.
Gonzales tossed the second complete game of his career and the Mariners' first complete game of the season, pitching all nine innings and allowing one run on four hits with a walk and eight strikeouts to improve to 4-2 on the season. In three starts vs. the Angels this season, he's 3-0. And in 14 career starts vs. the Angels, he's now 8-1.
The Angels' lone run came in the second inning, when Justin Upton hit a lead-off homer to left field.
After allowing the home run to Upton, Gonzales reeled off a string of 21 consecutive hitters retired.
His teammates tied the game and gave him a minimal lead. Jake Fraley led off the third inning with a triple off of Jaime Barria. He later scored on Joe Odom's single to left field.
The Mariners took a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning, when Jose Marmolejos hit a solo homer to right-center.
It was all the run support Gonzales would need.
Things got interesting in the ninth inning, when pinch hitter Shohei Ohtani led off with a broken-bat single to right field and Andrelton Simmons followed with a single to bring Mike Trout to the plate.
Having struck out in his previous three at-bats against Gonzales in the game, Trout wasn't going to wait around to fall behind in the count. He jumped on a first-pitch sinker and hit a rocket toward third base. Kyle Seager calmly snared the line drive and flipped the ball to second for a double play.
With two outs, Gonzales walked Anthony Rendon on four pitches to move the tying run into scoring position. But he got Albert Pujols to pop out to short to end the game.
