Donovan back to sparking Mariners atop lineup

HOUSTON -- Brendan Donovan hit the pillow on Friday night optimistic with how the Mariners fought their way back into that night’s game despite a gut-punch defeat in the end.

Which proved warranted, given how the Mariners responded the next night, with one of their most complete wins since the All-Star break.

But he was also peeved at himself for his final at-bat of the series-opening walk-off loss to the Astros.

Donovan grinded through eight pitches against Houston closer Josh Hader -- about as tough of a left-on-left matchup as there is -- then flew out in a full count with runners on first and second base, ending the top of the ninth inning with the scored tied at 5.

Had they pulled ahead, Andrés Muñoz would’ve been summoned for the bottom of the order instead of the top, which tagged him for five earned runs in that 10-7 loss.

“That's been driving me nuts,” Donovan said. “Just leaving guys out there's been driving me nuts. It's an area that I've always prided myself on, and that's been driving me bonkers.”

Donovan had an .840 OPS with runners on over his four seasons in St. Louis compared to a .544 OPS before Saturday’s big night. So, there was statistical backing to his frustration.

But on Saturday, he -- like the rest of the Mariners -- rebounded.

Donovan ripped three RBI singles that were all with two outs, and two of which were in two-strike counts. None of them were hard-hit (anything 95 mph or higher), and they were all up the middle or to the opposite field.

It was textbook Donovan, who -- at long last -- doesn’t just feel healthy after missing half the season, but looks it, too.

“This game is hard, right?” Donovan said postgame on Saturday. “You're going to have a relationship with failure, so it's just like, 'What's it going to take? What does the game dictate? What do we have to do?' And that was that tonight, and that was yesterday as well.”

Saturday also marked Donovan’s first game back at leadoff since being placed on the injured list for the second time with a left groin strain on May 16.

There’s a good bet he sticks there, too, just as the club envisioned when acquiring him from the Cardinals just before Spring Training as their key offseason addition.

“It's awesome that he's back,” said Cole Young, who’d been the Mariners’ primary leadoff man since the All-Star break. “He's going to hit for a high average and get on these, so I think that's super important. And it just helps with the energy. Even if it's a single, he gets on base. He's such a good builder [of energy], and it's awesome to play with him. And he's always grinding out at-bats.”

No team has been more reliant on the long ball than the Mariners, who entered Sunday having scored an MLB-high 49.8% of their runs via homers.

But only one of their 27 hits over the first two games of this series cleared the fence -- a three-run blast from Young in the ninth inning on Saturday -- which underscores what the lineup’s potential can offer by finding contact elsewhere. They scored 14 of their 17 runs without a homer to begin this series in Houston.

And it’s impossible not to draw a correlation to Donovan’s presence having a contagious effect.

“You can kind of see his progression as he's gotten back here and at-bat to at-bat has really fallen into being much much, more comfortable,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said.

Robles (right shoulder), Ward (leg soreness) out of lineup for Sunday Night Baseball
The Mariners held off until under two hours before first pitch in this series finale, to see if Victor Robles would be able to go after crashing hard on a diving catch attempt during the ninth inning the night prior.

But the sparkplug right fielder was ultimately held out while continuing to receive treatment. He’d been a big presence through the series’ first two games, going 5-for-9 with a pair of triples.

This is not the same shoulder that Robles fractured last season on a remarkable diving catch into the netting in San Francisco that sidelined him for over four months.

Taylor Ward was also out for the fourth straight game, as he continues to nurse leg soreness. The outfielder is off to a 5-for-32 (.156) start since being acquired from Baltimore at the Trade Deadline.