Inside The Mariners

Seattle Mariners Offense Awakens in 7-2 Win Against Cleveland Guardians

The Mariners put together a crooked seventh inning and snapped their three-game losing streak Friday.
Teren Kowatsch|
Seattle Mariners designated hitter Jorge Polanco runs after hitting a double against the Cleveland Guardians on June 13 at T-Mobile Park.
Seattle Mariners designated hitter Jorge Polanco runs after hitting a double against the Cleveland Guardians on June 13 at T-Mobile Park. | Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

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SEATTLE — During the Seattle Mariners three-game losing streak, generating traffic wasn't an issue. It was moving runners home. The Mariners cleared that hurdle in a 7-2 win against the Cleveland Guardians on Friday at T-Mobile Park. Seven Seattle hitters had multiple hits (first time since May 10, 2018) and the team improved to 34-34 with the victory. The M's are 4.5 games behind the Houston Astros in the American League West after the win.

"I don't like to look back. But we went through a rough stretch," Mariners manager Dan Wilson said in a postgame interview. "There were a lot of hard-hit balls during that rough stretch, too. We were doing some good things offensively. And tonight, more things went our way and we did a lot of great things offensively tonight. We knew it was coming, we knew it was just a matter of time and tonight was the night to bust it open."

Seattle starting pitcher Luis Castillo dissected the Cleveland lineup for the majority of his six-inning quality start. He had two blemishes — back-to-back solo home runs allowed in the top of the third to Nolan Jones and Steven Kwan. Those two homers accounted for the Guardians' only runs of the game.

Castillo wasn't dissuaded from the homers and finished the game with seven strikeouts in his six innings. He walked three and allowed three hits, including those two homers.

"It's not how you start, it's how you finish," Castillo said after the game via translator Freddy Llanos. "For me, it was all about going out there and battling. And that's what we did. Try to go battle, give everything I had for me. ... But we were able to escape or get rid of that kind of bad streak that we had."

The Mariners offense was able to support Castillo and then some. In the bottom of the fourth, Rowdy Tellez hit a solo home run to cut the Guardians' lead to 2-1 and J.P. Crawford tied it up the same inning with an RBI single.

After a dormant fifth and sixth inning, the idle Seattle lineup awoke in the seventh.

The Mariners put together a four-run seventh to the put the game away for good. Randy Arozarena gave Seattle a 3-2 lead with an RBI single, Dominic Canzone put two more on the board with his own single and Cole Young tacked on the final run of the home half of the seventh with a double.

Jorge Polanco, in a continuation of his bounce-back June after a paltry May, hit his first solo home run since May 12 in the bottom of the eighth for the eventual final of 7-2. The homer was hit from the right side of the plate, where the switch-hitter hasn't been able to bat from for most of the season. He finished the game 2-for-5 with two runs, a double, a homer and an RBI.

"(Polanco's) put in the work. He's put in the time," Wilson said. "And Polo's not gonna shy away from hard work. And that's a testament to him getting back and putting in the work to get back."

Julio Rodriguez, Arozarena, Tellez, Canzone and Ben Williamson all had two hits for the Mariners. Crawford had a game-high three. Seattle finished 4-for-17 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13. Cleveland went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left four on.

Seattle will look to clinch the series and snap their three-series losing streak in Game 2 of the set at 6:40 p.m. PT on Saturday. George Kirby will start for the Mariners and Tanner Bibee will start for the Guardians.

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Teren Kowatsch
TEREN KOWATSCH

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