Seattle Mariners right fielder Nelson Cruz breaks his bat on a ground out against the Tampa Bay Rays during their MLB game on Saturday. (Jennifer Buchanan-USA TODAY Sports)
By Ryan Divish/The Seattle Times (TNS)
The doors to the Seattle Mariners' bullpen opened. And there was a momentary pause from fans as a gangly figure appeared and began loping his way to the pitcher's mound and it wasn't Fernando Rodney.
Heck, the entrance music wasn't even ready at first. Finally, "Welcome to the Jungle" boomed through the stadium. Then public address announcer finally boomed, "Now pitching for the Mariners, No. 39 Carson Smith."
And before even throwing a pitch, Smith received a standing ovation from the 31,106 fans packed into Safeco on a perfect Saturday night.
But the ovation was five times louder when Smith got Steven Souza Jr. to fly out to end a non-dramatic, stress-free, 1-2-3 ninth inning to close the door on a 2-1 Mariners' win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Smith picked up his first save of the season and the Mariners snapped a seven-game losing streak to improve to 25-31 on the season.
From the dugout, Felix Hernandez raised his arms in celebration. He'd helped put an end to the streak with yet another solid outing.
After suffering a loss in his previous outing, Hernandez looked more like himself.
It helped he was facing the Rays—a team he has dominated in his career. After throwing seven innings, giving up one run on two hits with three walks and six strikeouts, Hernandez improved to 9-2 on the season.
After 16 innings of run-less misery, the Mariners finally put something on the scoreboard other than a zero in the fourth inning.
For the second straight inning, Seattle led off with a double with Seth Smith dumping one down the left-field line.
But unlike the third inning where Austin Jackson made it as far as third, Seattle actually pushed Smith across home plate. Logan Morrison lined a single into left field to move Smith to third and Willie Bloomquist, who got the start over a slumping Brad Miller, singled to center to make it 1-0.
It should have been more. But the Mariners' struggles weren't going to suddenly be remedied by one solitary run.
Mike Zunino walked to load the bases. But Jackson popped out in foul territory and Robinson Cano grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Cano's miseries with runners in scoring position have gone from concerning to irritating for Mariners fans and the result was met with a smattering of boos from the relatively full stadium. It was the fourth time this season Cano has grounded into a double play with the bases loaded.
Tampa answered in the sixth inning, finally getting to Hernandez. Kevin Kiermaier laced a line drive to deep right center. And despite losing his shoe running to first base, he hustled all way to third for a triple.
With his shoe back on, he scored moments later on a bounced breaking ball that got by Zunino for a wild pitch from Hernandez.
But unlike so many times in the past year, the Mariners at least put Hernandez in line for the win. After working a scoreless top of the seventh and at 106 pitches, it was obvious Hernandez was done for the evening.
His teammates gave him the lead in the bottom half of the inning. Jackson hammered a 3-2 fastball from reliever Steve Geltz into the visitor's bullpen in left field for a solo homer—his third of the season to make it 2-1.
With a previous double, Jackson is now hitting .390 (16 for 41) in his past 10 games.