TJ Cotterill
The News Tribune
SEATTLE — When it’s Pablo Sandoval, at 5-foot-11, 268 pounds, vs. Dee Gordon in a foot race, that’s always Gordon.
Except when Sandoval hit the ball just soft enough, with Gordon playing well back at second base — winner Sandoval.
And Gordon rushed the throw to first trying to get the final out of the top of the ninth, it got by first baseman Ryon Healy and Steve Duggar scored the go-ahead run from second base.
That means it’s really starting to turn into a foot race in the American League wild card chase, with the Mariners trying to hold off the on-fire Oakland Athletics with no help of the A’s Bay Area counterpart. The San Francisco Giants took a 4-3 victory against the Mariners on Tuesday at Safeco Field.
Seattle (60-41) saw its lead in the AL wild card dwindle to 1.5 games over the A’s. That was a 7.5-game lead earlier this month, but the Mariners are 7-10 in July and the A’s scored 11 unanswered runs in a wild 13-10, 10-inning win over the Rangers on Tuesday, improving to 13-5 in July.
All with Sandoval, equipped with his “Kung Fu Panda” nickname, slapping an infield single against Edwin Diaz in the ninth inning.
“Certainly Sandoval is not a fast runner and Dee is playing very deep,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Dee is an extraordinary athlete. He can cover a lot of ground and make up for plays like that. He’s trying to make a tough play.”
“Maybe Healy tries to come off the bag and say, ‘Hold it, hold it, hold it’ instead of staying on the bag (though it appeared Healy did do that). There’s a lot that plays into that. If Healy catches the ball we got first and third and we go get the next hitter.”
Mike Zunino, Ben Gamel and Gordon went down 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the inning.
“It’s baseball, it goes back and forth,. When you’re riding the wave you want to ride it as long as you can,” Servais said. “And when you don’t you got to figure out a way to get it back going again.
But really this came down to two critical mistakes.
First Gordon rushing his throw to first base on Sandoval’s hit. It was likely a single, anyway, with how far back Gordon was playing. The sense would have been to eat it and reset with two outs and runners on the corners.
Instead, Gordon’s throw went into Healy’s reaching glove and out before heading toward the Mariners’ dugout.
And earlier the Mariners had runners at first and second on Mike Zunino’s hard single to left field. Third base coach Scott Brosius waved in Kyle Seager as he rounded third, but Seager was out well before he reached home plate in the fourth inning.
“(Brosius) had a feeling. You read scouting reports on guys’ arm strength and accuracy and all those other things and we took a chance,” Servais said. “Their guys made a good play. A really good throw and cost us a run at the plate.”
Then combine that with the Giants scoring two runs on two bizarre infield singles.
“Just bad luck for us today,” Diaz said. “I thought I came in today, made good pitches, got out quick. We just got the bad luck today.”
Let’s reset.
The Mariners started without their ace, James Paxton, because his back, which sent him to the disabled list just before the All-Star break, unexpectedly stiffened up. .
So they called on left-hander Roenis Elias.
Elias was serviceable in his first start since two years ago with the Boston Red Sox, even rekindling some memories of his first two big league seasons when he was starting every fifth day for the Mariners before they traded him in a deal that brought forgettable right-hander Wade Miley.
“I felt good,” Elias said, with Mariners batting practice pitcher Nasusel Cabrera interpreting. “I was trying to get the breaking ball in the strike zone. That’s a pitch I’ve been working on. So I felt good.”
The Giants got their first run in the third inning after Kelby Tomlinson hit a triple and Chase d’Arnaud responded in kind with an infield pop up … that landed on the infield grass between Elias and shortstop Jean Segura. Neither could get to it in time, so Tomlinson crossed home plate.
They had two outs in the fourth when Tomlinson, the Giants’ No. 9 hitter, won an eight-pitch battle with Elias for an RBI single.
Hunter Pence launched a solo home run on Chase Bradford in the sixth off the facing of the upper deck past left field. That was Pence’s first homer of the season for a 3-2 Giants lead.
Shortly after, the score from Arlington, Texas, between the Rangers and Athletics switched to final. The A’s had rallied from a 10-2 deficit to beat Texas.
These A’s, who are 24-7 since the middle of June, are essentially what the Mariners were when they went streaking after Robinson Cano’s 80-game drug suspension was announced. Seattle went 23-8 in 31 games after Cano’s suspension.
Oh, and later the Astros beat the Rockies, 8-2. The Mariners are six games back for the AL West lead.
It was about time for the Mariners to get back to what got them here.
It started with clutch at-bats. Denard Span and Mike Zunino drew back-to-back two-out walks before pinch-hitter Ben Gamel followed with a looping RBI single to left field.
Not bad from the Mariners’ No. 9 spot. Guillermo Heredia hit a solo home run earlier in the game — his third of the season and first since April 10.
“Coming into the ball game you think if you’re in a tie game in the seventh, we really like our chances,” Servais said. “I thought our intensity was good. We did grind out a bunch of at-bats. We’ll be back out here tomorrow and get right after them.”
