Postgame notes and video of manager Scott Servais discussing the Mariners' 9-6 loss to the A's.
The Mariners available relievers tonight:
- Right-hander Steve Cishek
- Right-hander Dan Altavilla
- Left-hander Marc Rzepczynski
- Left-hander James Pazos (for one-two batters)
- Left-hander Dillon Overton
Both Tony Zych and Nick Vincent had worked three days in a row and were unavailable. The Mariners weren’t planning to use Zych last night, but were forced to because of Edwin Diaz’s implosion. Of course, the day they demote Diaz from closing, the Mariners would be in a save situation. And Diaz was obviously unavailable for mental and physical reasons having also thrown three games in a row.
Manager Scott Servais went to Steve Cishek to start the ninth. Cishek was making just his second appearance of the season, but did have the most experience in save situations of those available. Cishek gave up a pinch-hit leadoff single to Rajai Davis and then served up a two-run homer to lefty-hitting Matt Joyce.
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Why didn’t Servais go to Rzepczysnki for the left-on-left matchup? Because he had no other right-handers left in his bullpen. He had already used Altavilla, who was brilliant in the eighth. And he didn’t want to be in a situation with a lefty facing A’s slugger Khris Davis.
Perhaps to replay, you could try and ask Altavilla to come back out for the ninth to at least face Davis and keep Cishek. Remember it wasn’t that long ago where Altavilla pitched himself to Class AAA with a total lack of fastball command. But on Tuesday, he was outstanding, showing better command and lots of velocity. Still, he’s also only made one multi-inning outing in 29 big league appearances — last season in a mop up game against the Astros. This season, he’s made two multi-inning outings in Class AAA Tacoma, but that was to work on his command and mechanical changes in lower leverage spots. And a multi-inning outing at the AAA level is certainly different from pitching the eighth and the possibly going to the ninth in a save situation.
So if you make that gamble, you bring Altavilla back for the ninth in probably his biggest situation of his career that allows you to keep Cishek in the bullpen. If Altavilla gets out Rajai Davis, then you could go to Rzepczynski to face Joyce and maybe Jed Lowrie. And if all that goes well, you would only need to bring Cishek in to face Khris Davis in if there were a runner on base. But it would still be high leverage for a guy coming off the DL in his second MLB outing
Feel free to discuss the options.
From the visitor’s clubhouse … A’s manager Bob Melvin
On tonight’s win: “When you go through streaks like this, you have to find some fight. Because, we’ve been losing games by a defensive play, one pitch, little things during this whole stretch. At some point in time you have to overcome it and find some grit and do some good things late in games when we’re behind. Finally did it tonight, so hopefully, hopefully, this is something we can build on.”
On Matt Joyce: “In a game like that, with a one run lead, and now we do anything we can to add on. So, Canha’s home run was big too, but certainly the Joyce homerun gave us a little spark after what was like Groundhog Day for us, it’s been that way for a little bit.”
On Rajai Davis’s pinch hit: “That was huge, because now he’s got to be quicker to the plate, there are a whole host of things that a pitcher has to worry about when a guy like Rajai is on base.”
On the 7th inning: “Talk about some unlucky stuff, Dull had one off the end of the bat, a chopper. Then we make an error, and it looks like we have another double play, I don’t know how that’s overturned, I really don’t. It feels like we’ve been burned on that all year long. Just a lot of unlucky stuff and like I said you have to make your own breaks, and overcome it, and they did that tonight.”
Game notes
SEATTLE MARINERS:
Jean Segura extended his career-best hitting streak to 15 games (since April 30).
- During streak is hitting .397 (27×68) with 14 runs, 6 doubles, 1 home run and 6 RBI.
- The 15-game streak is the longest active streak in the Majors.
- The 15-game streak is T3rd-longest in the Majors this season.
Kyle Seager hit a go-ahead solo home run in the 8th inning to give Seattle 5-4 lead.
- Seager has hit home runs in back-to-back games and has 4 in his last 16 games.
- Had zero home runs in his first 21 games of the season.
Nelson Cruz has homered in back-to-back games and in 3 of the last 6 (since May 11).
- Has 10 home runs in his last 28 games after hitting zero in his first 10 games.
- Cruz is hitting .398 (33×83) with 14 runs, 6 doubles, 8 HR’s & 26 RBI in last 24 games.
- He’s reached base with a hit in 20 of the 23 games with an at-bat.
Boog Powell had an RBI single in the 9th inning off Santiago Casilla, his first Major League hit.
Jarrod Dyson was hit by pitch 3 times, the 26th time since 1913 that a player was hit 3 times.
- It’s the first time that Mariners player has been hit by a pitch 3 times in a single game.
Chase De Jong tied a season/career high with 6.0 innings pitched (also: May 6 vs. TEX).
- His 4 strikeouts are a season/career high (3, May 6 vs. TEX).
- Seattle starters have completed 6.0+ innings in back to back starts for 1st time since May 5-6.
OAKLAND ATHLETICS:
With the win the Athletics snapped their 4-game losing streak…the A’s are 2-7 in their last road games and 6-14 overall this season.
The A’s scored 5 runs in the top of the 9th inning…the last time they scored at least 5 runs in the 9th was July 8, 2016 at HOU (5 R).
Andrew Triggs allowed 1 run on 4 hits while walking 2 and striking out 4 over 6.0 innings, but did not factor into the decision…he has tossed at least 6.0 innings and allowed 1 run or less in 5 of his 8 starts this season.
Matt Joyce recorded his 5th home run of the season with a 2-run blast with 0 outs in the top of the 9th inning to give the A’s a 6-5 lead…marked his 37th career go ahead home run.
Ryon Healy has hit safely in 9 of his last 11 games, batting .326 (14×43) with 7 run scored, 1 double, 4 home runs, 6 RBI and 3 walks.
- Healy recorded his 7th home run of the season and first since hitting a home run in 3 consecutive games, May 4-7…also recorded his 2nd home run on the road this season (last: May 4 at MIN).
Mark Canha has hit safely in last 4 games, including 2 multi-hit contests, batting .500 (7×14) with 11 runs scored, 2 doubles, 1 home run and 4 RBI.
Adam Rosales has hit safely in 11 of his last 13 games (5/3-current), batting .302 (13×43) with 4 runs scored, 3 doubles, 1 home run, 6 RBI and 3 walks.
Catcher Josh Phegley caught 2 basestealers…marks the 3rd time in his career to catch at least 2 baserunners in a game: May 26 vs. DET (3 CCS) and June 13, 2015 (2 CCS).