Wednesday night's 10-7 Mariners win over the Angels could have belonged to Dylan Moore.
Moore, who grew up near Angel Stadium and spent his childhood going to Angels games with his family, smashed a three-run home run as part of a five-run sixth inning in a wild game in Anaheim.
The utility player who is among the group rotating in the outfield, started against his hometown team and stung them with a pair of hits and an impressive over-the-shoulder catch.
The spotlight could have also been thrust upon young starter Justin Dunn, the club’s No. 7 prospect. Dunn was reminded about the value of focus and concentration, especially the second time through a lineup.
Then there’s Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford, who reached base four times in his debut in the leadoff spot. He drove in two runs on a single after a 10-pitch at-bat with two outs in the eighth inning to extend the Mariners’ lead.
“I think just my overall approaches here have been good so far,” Crawford said. “Just focused and staying within myself. I just got stay where I'm at right now.”
But this night belonged to veteran Kyle Seager, who at 32 years, 269 days, is the oldest player on the youngest roster in the big leagues. Seager drove in three runs, including the go-ahead run in seventh and finished 3-for-4. He also scored a run, the 600th of his career.
“He’s just doing what he does in the batter’s box,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “He’s not trying to hit homers or anything. Just having quality at-bats. It’s nice to see him off to this kind of start.”
Crawford’s performance and Seager’s heroics were almost enough to overshadow the fact that Mariners starters have not pitched more than 4 1/3 innings in an outing this season. The staff as a whole has been inconsistent. The Mariners are the first team to allow six or more runs in each of their first six games of the season since 1995.
“One thing that's been kind of a constant is we've had that one [bad] inning,” Servais said before the game. “You know, it's oftentimes within the third or fourth inning in these games. It's kind of the second time through the order, and it's really been driven by a lack of command.”
One flawed frame stung the Mariners again on Wednesday. This time it was with Dunn on the mound.
Dunn retired nine of the first 10 hitters he faced in the 65-pitch outing. But that’s not what he is going to remember the most. Every pitcher in the starting rotation, including Dunn, is going to have to figure out how to successfully get through an opposing team’s batting order more than one time.
For now, Mariners opponents have a .405 batting average their second time though. Only the Giants have fared worse. The Mariners have also allowed a 1.230 OPS (also second-worst in MLB ahead of the Giants) and a .524 OBP (worst in the big leagues) the second time through the order.
Dunn cruised for three innings, but two-hole hitter Mike Trout reached on an error to start the bottom of the fourth. Dunn walked the next batter, Anthony Rendon, and Shohei Ohtani followed with a three-run home run on a low breaking ball out of the strike zone to push the Angels ahead, 3-1. It was the only hit Dunn would allow.
He proceeded to walk Justin Upton on eight pitches and did not face another hitter.
“I can't say enough how happy I was with how Justin Dunn went about his start,” Servais said. “Again, we got to work on getting deeper in the ballgame, but the stuff was good, and more importantly for me, he just had a presence on the mound.”
Seager got the Mariners on the board when he smashed a first-pitch fastball from Angels starter Andrew Heaney to right field to drive in Evan White for a 1-0 lead in the fourth. He also notched an RBI single in the sixth.
Kyle Lewis had three hits, drove in a run and scored. The rookie outfielder has hit safely in every game this season.
“It was a nice win,” Servais said. “We came back a couple of different times in that ballgame against a quality team. … We are learning more about our guys every day, and it was good to get a win tonight.”