4/14/23

Mariners 5, Rockies 3

(Seattle, WA) T-Mobile Park was back and full for Cal Raleigh’s Clinch bobblehead night on Friday night as the Seattle Mariners returned from a six-game road trip to begin a lengthy nine-game homestand. Game number one was the opener of a three-game series with the Colorado Rockies who are notorious for struggling on the road. The Mariners would take advantage of those struggles. With Marco Gonzales a late scratch due to his wife giving birth to their second child, Tommy Milone stepped up on short notice and delivered as the Mariners hung on for a 5-3 win over the Rockies.

Colorado jumped on Tommy Milone immediately in the top of the 1st. The second batter of the game for Colorado was Kris Bryant and he got a pitch he liked. A lot. Bryant crushed the fastball over the wall in left field for his first home run of the season to give the Rockies a 1-0 lead.

Seattle wouldn’t have their first baserunner until the bottom of the 2nd. Teoscar Hernandez grounded one up the middle for a leadoff single. Two batters later, Jarred Kelenic continued his blazing hot week. Getting an odd start against a lefty, Kelenic smoked a slider into center field, The ball sailed over the wall to make it four straight games with a home run for the 23 year old. All of his home runs this week also went over 400 feet but his fourth of the season made it 2-1 Mariners.

Tommy Milone avoided getting into any trouble but Austin Gomber for Colorado ran into serious trouble in the bottom of the 4th for Colorado. Kelenic led off the inning with his fifth double of the season with a rocket into the right field corner. Tom Murphy moved him over with a sacrifice fly to right center, but things looked better for the Rockies when Sam Haggerty lined out to third to keep Kelenic on third with two outs. A J.P. Crawford walk gave Julio Rodriguez an opportunity to hit with runners on. After hitting the ball hard a couple of times with nothing to show for it, Julio made up for it in this at bat. J-Rod lined one to center field to give him an RBI but he would hustle into second and avoid a tag to record his fifth double of the season as well. Ty France cranked what looked like a three-run homer, but instead hit off the wall in center field. Crawford and Rodriguez scored on France’s seventh double of the season to make it 5-1 Mariners.

The top of the 6th is where Colorado made their move. With Trevor Gott on the mound, singles by Charlie Blackmon, C.J. Cron, and a walk for Ryan McMahon loaded the bases with one out. Yonathan Daza hit a grounder that was kept on the infield on a nice stop by Sam Haggerty at second, but a run still scored and the bases stayed loaded with the score no 5-2. Matt Brash took over in relief and struck out Mike Moustakas quickly, but would give the Rockies a run for free when he walked Ezequiel Tovar to make it 5-3. That would be it for the Rockies as Brash threw three sliders by Jurickson Profar to strike him out to leave the bases loaded with the M’s still up 5-3.

The Mariner bullpen dominated after that. Elias Diaz reached base with a single to start the 8th, but he was erased on a double play. Paul Sewald took over in the top of the 9th. His sweeper was cooking on Friday night as the Mariner closer struck out both Moustakas and Tovar. Profar would get a fastball and put it in play but it would be a slow roller to Ty France. An underhanded toss to Sewald covering first ended the game and got the homestand off to a good start for the Mariners with a 5-3 win.

Seattle (6-8) will try to win their first series at home on Saturday in game two with Colorado (5-9). George Kirby (0-1, 4.35 ERA) will look to earn his first win of the season opposite Ryan Feltner (0-1, 7.45 ERA) who has struggled with the walks a little bit to start the season for the Rockies.

Matt’s Takeaways

Another day, another Jarred Kelenic home run. Hitting them off righties is awesome. Hitting them off lefties is the dream for the M’s. This is what we have all been waiting to see from him. Tommy Milone was very good for getting the late notice start. He went out, threw strikes and trusted his defense. You can’t ask for much more from the veteran and he continues to have sporadic strong starts in weird circumstances for the M’s.

Notable Performances

Rockies

• Kris Bryant- 2-4, HR, RBI, R
• Ezequiel Tovar- 1-2, RBI, 2 BB
• Autin Gomber (L, 0-3)- 3.2 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 2 SO

Mariners

• Jarred Kelenic- 2-4, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R
• Ty France- 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI
• Tommy Milone (ND)- 4.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO

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