SEATTLE MARINERS NOTES:
TONIGHT’S TILT…the Mariners play the second game of a 3-game series (1-0) against the Cleveland Guardians tonight…the Mariners will also travel to Wrigley Field to take on the Chicago Cubs (3 G, 4/10-12) on the trip… tonight’s game will be televised live on ROOT SPORTS with Dave Sims and Mike Blowers on the call and broadcast live on Seattle Sports (710 AM) and Mariners.com with Rick Rizzs and Aaron Goldsmith. ODDS AND ENDS…Seattle defeated Cleveland by a 5-3 score in yesterday’s road opener…the Mariners improved to 10-5 over their last 15 road openers.
• You Can Actually Call It A Comeback – The Mariners yesterday earned their first comeback win of the season…Seattle’s 40 comeback wins in the 2022 regular season were 3rd-most in the American League.
• Total Team Win – In yesterday’s 5-3 victory, all 9 Mariners in the starting lineup reached base, with 8 of the 9 starters recording a base hit.
• JK – Jarred Kelenic leads the Mariners in hard-hit percentage (58.3%).
• CrawDaddy – J.P. Crawford leads the Mariners in average exit velocity (94.9 mph).
• Going For a Series Dub – The Mariners would secure their first series victory of the season with a win today.
• PNW Pride – Cooper Hummel recorded his first hit with Seattle yesterday…he became the first Oregonborn Mariners player to record a hit since pitcher Sam Gaviglio singled on May 29, 2017 at Colorado.
JULIO: FASTEST TO 30 HOME RUNS…Julio Rodríguez went 2-for-5 with a go-ahead, 2-run homer in the top of the 6th inning in yesterday’s win…it was his 30th career home run in his 140th career game, making him the fastest player in Mariners history to reach 30 career homers…he surpassed Jim Presley, who hit his 30th career home run in his 156th career game (also 2nd MLB season, like Julio) on July 18, 1985 at Milwaukee.
JULIO OFF TO A HOT START…Julio Rodríguez stole his third base of the season and hit his second home run yesterday…in 8 games, the 22-year-old is batting .286 (10×35) with a team-leading 8 runs, 4 doubles, 2 homers, 4 RBI, 3 walks and 3 stolen bases, getting on base at a .342 clip, slugging .571 with a .913 OPS in 38 plate appearances…his 20 total bases lead the Mariners, ranking narrowly ahead of Ty France (18 TB).
ANDRÉ(S) THE GIANT…Andrés Muñoz recorded his 100th strikeout in a Mariners uniform in yesterday’s 5-3 win over the Guardians…in 69 games with the Mariners, Muñoz has posted a 2.35 ERA (18 ER, 69.0 IP) with 18 walks and 100 strikeouts, holding opponents to a .193 batting average (47×243).
THE FRENCH CONNECTION…Ty France went 1-for-5 with an RBI yesterday…the Mariners first baseman has gotten off to a hot start through 8 games, batting .333 (11×33) with 6 runs, 4 doubles, 1 home run, 6 RBI and 2 walks, getting on base at a .389 clip, slugging .545 with a .934 OPS in 36 plate appearances…Ty has hit safely in 5 consecutive contests (4/2-c) and 7 of 8 games so far this season.
HOT BAT AT THE HOT CORNER…Eugenio Suárez went 1-for-4 with a walk yesterday…Geno is batting .344 (11×32) with 4 runs, 3 doubles, 5 RBI and 1 walk, getting on base at a .364 clip, slugging .438 with an .802 OPS in 33 plate appearances…he’s hit safely in 5 consecutive contests (4/2-c) and 7 of 8 games so far this season, including 4 consecutive multi-hit games from April 2-5.
J.P. DELIVERS…J.P. Crawford went 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored and a pair of RBI doubles in yesterday’s win…Crawford’s second double of the game, which came in the 6th inning, was 108.3 mph off the bat… the Mariners shortstop came around to score both times, in the 5th on Ty France’s RBI single and in the 6th on Julio Rodríguez’ 2-run homer…J.P.’s 2 RBI doubles scored Cooper Hummel and Jarred Kelenic, respectively.
THE BULLY ‘PEN…Seattle relievers combined for 5.0 scoreless innings in yesterday’s win…Penn Murfee, Trevor Gott, Matt Brash, Andrés Muñoz and Paul Sewald each contributed an inning, allowing just 2 baserunners (one hit and one walk) with 7 strikeouts…Murfee earned his first win of the season, while Sewald notched his first save of the 2023 campaign.
FUN TIMES IN CLEVELANDDDDD…Seattle has won 5 consecutive games at Progressive Field since June 13, 2021…in that span, the Mariners have outscored the Guardians by a 27-9 advantage, holding them to just under 2.0 runs-per-game…the Mariners pitching staff has 12 walks and 38 strikeouts in those games.
HIGHLY RATED…according to Major League Baseball research, the Mariners 3-0 shutout of the Guardians on Opening Night at T-Mobile Park scored a 7.3 rating on ROOT SPORTS, the highest rating for a Mariners game on ROOT since June 14, 2019 (a 7.9 vs. Boston)…the game was the most-watched telecast that week in the city of Seattle.
TWOS-DAY’S GONE…last Tuesday, April 4, Teoscar Hernández and AJ Pollock each hit 2 home runs in an 11-win over the Angels…with Jarred Kelenic and Mitch Haniger each hitting 2 homers for Seattle on Sept. 29, 2022 vs. Texas, and Julio Rodríguez and Eugenio Suárez each doing it on Sept. 11, 2022 vs. Atlanta, the Mariners have accounted for each of the last 3 multi-homer teammate duos in the same game across the Majors…they are the first team to account for 3 consecutive around the Majors, without any other team doing it in that span, since the Houston Astros did it on July 23, 2000 (Lance Berkman, Bill Spiers), Aug. 13, 2000 (Moises Alou, Jeff Bagwell) and Sept. 9, 2000 (Berkman, Tim Bogar, Richard Hidalgo)…Hernández and Pollock also became just the 4th duo in MLB history to each hit their first 2 home runs with a new team in the same game…they joined Hall of Famer Gabby Hartnett and Bernie Friberg for the Chicago Cubs on April 20, 1923, Toby Atwell and Jerry Lynch for the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 27, 1954, and Josh Donaldson and Russell Martin for the Toronto Blue Jays on April 17, 2015.
TONIGHT’S MARINERS STARTER – LHP MARCO GONZALES
ABOUT GONZALES…
• 31-year-old left-hander is making his 2nd start of the season, both against the Guardians he is also making his 155th career appearance (147th career start) and his 5th career appearance against Cleveland (4th start).
• Acquired by Seattle from St. Louis in exchange for minor league outfielder Tyler O’Neill on July 21, 2017.
• Native of Fort Collins, CO…attended Gonzaga University for 3 years (2011-13).
• Originally selected by Colorado in the 29th round of the 2010 MLB Draft out of Rocky Mountain High School (Fort Collins, CO) but did not sign…drafted and signed by the Cardinals with the 19th overall pick in the 2013 MLB Draft out of Gonzaga University…became the highest draft pick in the history of the Gonzaga baseball program.
• Made his MLB debut with Cardinals on June 25, 2014 at Colorado.
LAST TIME OUT…ND in last start on 4/2 vs. CLE in his season debut…allowed 4 runs on 6 hits (1 HR) and 2 walks while striking out 1.
AGAIN?…is facing the same opponent in consecutive starts for the first time since his final two starts of the 2021 season both came against the Los Angeles Angels…he combined to toss 13.0 innings allowing just 3 runs on 6 total hits…has had consecutive starts against the same opponent on 8 previous occasions.
SECOND TIME AROUND…is making his first start in Cleveland since 4/29/18 when he received his 3rd win of the season after pitching 6.0 innings and allowing 6 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, and 1 home run while striking out 4…tonight’s game marks the second start of Gonzales’ career at Progressive Field.
STARTING THE SEASON STRONG…holds a 10-7 career record in March/ April with a 4.24 ERA (121.0 IP, 57 ER)…in March/April opponents are batting .273 (130×477) against Gonzales while striking out 103 times and walking 31 times.
SEASON-LONG STAMINA…made all 32 starts last season which is tied for 1st among Mariners pitchers with Logan Gilbert and Robbie Ray…his 183.0 innings pitched was 3rd on the team last year trailing only Ray (189.0) and Gilbert (185.2)…he also led Seattle’s starting pitchers in decisions earning 25 decisions out of his 32 starts in 2022.
BUILT DIFFERENT…had 8 different starts with 6+ innings pitched and 2-or-fewer strikeouts in 2022, which was the most such starts in the Majors…Cole Irvin-OAK ranked second with 5 such starts.
LET’S GET DEEP…The Mariners are 53-26 in starts when Gonzales goes 6.0 or more innings, compared to 21-42 when he tosses 5.2 innings or less over his career…when Gonzales tosses 7.0+ innings the Mariners are 25-9.
GOOD STRETCHES…recorded mulitple quality start streaks in 2022…his longest quality start streak occurred from 6/15-7/7/22 during which he had a 2.51 ERA (32.1 IP, 9 ER) in 5 consecutive quality starts…his second longest streak occurred from 8/25-9/11/22 during which he had a 2.88 ERA (25.0 IP, 8 ER) in 4 consecutive quality starts…Gonzales tied for 1st in quality starts among Mariners starting pitchers last season with Robbie Ray (18).
STRIKEOUT-LESS IN SEATTLE…tossed 6.2 innings allowing 3 runs (2 ER) on 8 hits and 0 walks with 0 strikeouts on 7/7/22 vs. TOR…was 1 of only 8 instances of a starter tossing 6.0+ innings without a strikeout in 2022.
OPENER x 3…started on Opening Day 3-consecutive years from 2019-21…became the 7th Mariners to start on Opening Day for at least 3-consecutive seasons, joining Mike Moore (1984-86), Mark Langston (1987-89), Randy Johnson (1992-1996), Freddy Garcia (2001-03), Jamie Moyer (2004-06) and Felix Hernandez (2009-18).
DEEP (START) IN THE HEART OF TEXAS…tossed the 3rd complete game of his career in a 3-1 Mariners win against Texas on Aug. 12, 2021… matched his career highs in innings pitched (9.0), strikeouts (9) and surrendered the fewest hits in any of his 3 complete games (2)…the only run allowed came via a home run to Charlie Culberson with 2 outs in the 2nd inning…he faced the minimum in 8 of 9 innings.
PLAYOFF PROWESS…pitched in the 2014 Postseason with St. Louis…went 2-1 with a 4.50 ERA (3 ER, 6.0 IP) with 4 strikeouts and…earned 2 wins in the NLDS vs. Los Angeles, becoming the 4th rookie in postseason history to win 2 games in the Division Series (also: Dave Righetti-NYY, 1981, Jaret Wright-CLE, 1997 and Francisco RodrÍguez-LAA, 2002).
BULLDOG ROOTS…played 3 seasons (2011-13) with the Gonzaga Bulldogs, compiling a career record of 26-7 with a 2.34 ERA while recording 9 complete games and 4 shutouts…tallied 278 strikeouts over 303.2 innings of work…became the highest draft pick in the history of the Gonzaga baseball program when he was selected 19th overall by St. Louis in 2013…shared West Coast Conference Player of the Year honors with the Rockies’ Kris Bryant (University of San Diego) as a freshman in 2011 and as a junior in 2013…in 2013, earned John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year honors as well as WCC Co-Player of the Year for the 2nd time in his career…was 1 of 5 Gonzaga products to appear in a Major League game in 2022.
CLEVELAND GUARDIANS NOTES:
No release available.
