In a game when the Mariners desperately needed it, Marco Gonzales did not have his best stuff. The co-captain of the Quad Squad missed his spots regularly, issuing three walks and recording just ten outs with his first 70 pitches. If not for a well-spun breaking pitch to force Matt Chapman’s inning-ending double play in the fourth, this game could have slipped away while it was still light outside.
Instead, the Mariners just hung around, and hung around. The first run came when Bob Melvin intentionally walked Nelson Cruz with a four-run lead.