Vogey homers as Mariners exploit Crew's errors

Seattle wins 6th game in its last 7; Gonzales gets the win

June 26th, 2019

MILWAUKEE -- Usually, it’s been the Mariners who have been hurt by sloppy baseball this season.

Seattle’s MLB-leading 85 errors have opened the door to some big innings that have turned into big losses, but the Mariners flipped the script in Tuesday’s 8-3 win over the Brewers at Miller Park.

The Mariners started putting pressure on Brewers’ starter Zach Davies in the third inning and did it with the help of four consecutive extra-base hits. Seattle scored four runs as a pair of doubles from Mallex Smith and Domingo Santana sandwiched between a J.P. Crawford triple started the rally. Daniel Voglebach, who continues his Home Run Derby highlight reel, capped the inning with a majestic two-run blast that gave Seattle a three-run lead.

“The ball does fly here,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Our guys enjoyed taking batting practice today. They were anxious to get up there tonight. Vogey’s in a good spot. He’s having fun playing. He’s got big time power and we saw it again tonight. He’s getting a chance to play every day. That’s the big thing.”

The Mariners didn’t stop there and were able to capitalize off of back-to-back throwing errors by Mike Moustakas and Davies that led to two more runs in the fourth before adding another run in the fifth to extend the lead.

“The game is a different game if we put up a zero in the fourth,” Brewers’ manager Craig Counsell said. “We gave them two runs. It’s a different game in my opinion. That’s the inning that cost us as much as anything.”

Davies has been one of the National League’s best in 2019 and had only given up four runs in a start twice this season before Tuesday. The Mariners’ offense tallied six runs against him in one of his shortest outings of the season.

Gonzales stays hot in June

Marco Gonzales is going to be sad to see the month of June go.

The Mariners southpaw has been on a tear this month and continued his success against one of the toughest lineups in baseball.

Gonzales pitched effectively against the Brewers, and despite inducing just two swings and misses out of his 94 pitches, the left-hander controlled the strike zone in his five innings and used his sinker to keep the ball away from the barrel. Seven of Gonzales’ 15 outs came via the ground ball.

“The Brewers can score runs a number of different ways. They have all kinds of power, and Marco kept them off-balance all night,” Servais said. “He battled. Nice ballgame. Only five innings tonight, but the pitch count was what it was and we went to the bullpen."

The Seattle left-hander struck out four and didn’t issue a walk for the first time since May 28 vs. Texas en route to his ninth victory of the season.

“We knew we put our foot on the gas pedal right away, get ahead. Use the fastball effectively to both sides of the plate and try to spin in our counts,” Gonzales said. "We knew it would hopefully go well if we executed. Kudos to Omar. The only pitch I shook him [off] on was a homer.”

Gonzalez has now won his last four starts in June and has won four consecutive decisions for the first time since winning five straight from June 29-July 29, 2018.

Adams taking advantage of big opportunity

Since coming over in a trade from the Nationals on May 4, reliever Austin Adams has been given the keys to the car. With many of Seattle’s relievers down with various injuries, Adams has been given the opportunity to not only pitch, but pitch in high-leverage situations. None bigger than what he faced in Tuesday’s game.

Adams was tasked with a job that many pitchers have struggled to achieve since the start of last season: get Christian Yelich out.

Servais called on Adams to face Yelich with runners on first and third with two outs to kill whatever rally the Brewers had created.

“He’s in a good spot,” Servais said. “We’ve been using him in a bunch of different roles and the fact that the higher-leverage spots it matches up well, we’ll fire him out there.”

After going to a 3-2 count, Adams froze Yelich with a slider to end the threat.

“That’s if not the best hitter in the world, he’s second. That guy’s incredible,” Adams said. “Made a good pitch at the right time. Just one of those good days.”

Adams has found comfort in his role as a late-inning weapon for Servais and is showing what he can do with the team’s trust. He now has a 2.95 ERA in 16 appearances with the Mariners with 30 strikeouts and just eight walks.

“People say I can’t throw strikes. That’s always [been] the negative on me. He can’t throw strikes. He’s too wild. So I’m just trying to prove everyone wrong and throw strikes and have fun out there,” Adams said. “It’s honestly a blessing for an organization to finally trust me and say, ‘We fully believe in you.’”