Vogelbach drives in 6 as Seattle bats stay hot

Encarnacion also goes yard in club-record 11th straight game with HR

April 7th, 2019

CHICAGO -- hit two home runs on Sunday, but there’s no guarantee he’ll be in the lineup on Monday. After all, he replaced for Sunday's 12-5 win over the White Sox, a day after Bruce homered twice.

Simply put, there are not enough slots in the lineup for all the scorching bats on the Mariners' roster right now, particularly at first base and designated hitter, where manager Scott Servais can only fit two from the trio of Vogelbach, Bruce and .

“At the end of the day, my team’s not going to be happy with me,” Servais said. “You can’t play them all, but as long as they’re producing like this, it’s a good problem to have.”

Indeed.

Vogelbach hit two home runs and had a career-high six RBIs, and Encarnacion homered and added four RBIs, powering the first-place Mariners to their ninth victory in 11 games.

The Mariners have homered in all 11 games this season -- extending their franchise record -- and their total of 27 for the season leads the Majors.

“We strung together some really, really good at-bats,” Servais said. “Up and down the lineup, everybody chipping in. It was a really good series for us offensively. I can’t say enough about how our offense is clicking right now, and we’re really grinding through. You’re beating down their pitching by making them throw so many pitches.”

Left-handed starter Wade LeBlanc benefited from the offensive support for the win, giving up two runs on six hits in six innings and leaving with an 11-2 lead. The Mariners scored 10 runs in LeBlanc’s first start on March 31.

They now have scored at least six runs in nine of their 11 games, and scored 29 runs in the three-game series. On Sunday, Seattle put six runs on the board in the third inning alone to break open a tie at 1.

Domingo Santana, Encarnacion and Omar Narvaez had consecutive run-scoring singles with one out. One batter later, Vogelbach capped the big inning -- chasing Chicago starter Ivan Nova (0-1) in the process -- with a three-run double in the right-center gap to make it 7-1.

Encarnacion, who had an RBI groundout in the first, stroked a two-run homer to left in the fourth. Vogelbach followed with a long two-run shot to right in the fifth for an 11-2 lead. He added a solo shot in the ninth for his first career multi-homer game.

As for playing time, Vogelbach is enjoying himself too much to fret over the fact that Bruce and Encarnacion have twice as many at-bats at this point. Vogelbach said he’ll be ready when his name’s in the lineup.

“It’s easy to stay in the game and stay focused with this group, because it’s always fun. There’s always something going on,” he said. “Every inning is excited and we’re always scoring runs, so it’s always easy to stay in the game and not let your mind zone off.”

Worth noting

• Mariners shortstop left Sunday's game during the fifth inning with hamstring tightness, and no immediate prognosis was relayed

returned to the lineup after sitting out on Saturday with a sore groin and went 1-for-4.