Mariners roll in Cruz control
Seattle slugger cracks two homers as visitors shell starter Dickey and Jays’ bullpen
R.A. Dickey had another tough day on Saturday.
Inconsistency and wildness can plague the veteran right-hander at times, but it all went wrong in just over one inning. He lasted just three-plus innings, giving up six runs on seven hits, paving the way for a blowout 14-5 win for the Seattle Mariners over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Kevin Pillar scored on a sacrifice fly by Josh Thole in the second to give Toronto the early lead. But that’s when Dickey’s troubles began.
In the third, Shawn O’Malley singled on what was effectively a swinging bunt down the third-base line. After Norichika Aoki got on base on a fielder’s choice, Dickey hit Seth Smith with a pitch. He followed that up by plunking Robinson Cano to load the bases. He got ahead on Nelson Cruz, but the Mariners’ DH slammed an offering into the covered first-deck seats in centre field to give Seattle a 4-1 lead.
“It was a tough one to control today,” Dickey said. “I hit two guys with (the knuckleball) today. I didn’t give us much of a chance.”
The consecutive hit batsmen seemed identical.
“Sometimes, when it doesn’t spin and the wind gets it the right way, it takes off on you. Sometimes, you’re at the mercy of the pitch. It’s going to do what it’s going to do.”
As for the home-run shot, Dickey credited Cruz for staying with what he thought was a good pitch.
In the next inning, Leonys Martin got on with a sharp liner that went off the glove of Troy Tulowitzki. Chris Iannetta then walked and O’Malley singled to the third-base side, beating out the long throw to first from Josh Donaldson and once again leaving Dickey in a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam.
Aoki’s next shot went off the glove of Tulowitzki, scoring Martin and sending Dickey to an early shower and his 11th loss of the season.
“They’ve got a pretty good hitting team over there,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “What killed him was hitting those two guys then giving up the grand slam.”
Franklin Morales, fresh off the disabled list, got his first test immediately, and after forcing a double-play which Iannetta scored on, he was able to get Cano to pop out to end the nightmare.
While this was going on, Mariners starter Hishashi Iwakuma — just as teammate James Paxton of Ladner did in a 2-1 Seattle win on Friday night — gave the Jays’ offence very little to work with, getting two perfect innings in the third and fourth and getting Edwin Encarnacion to strike out with two men on in the fifth.
Jesse Chavez came on in the sixth and immediately got into trouble. Iannetta doubled to left-centre. Donaldson was then unable to throw out O’Malley on a bunt attempt, moving Iannetta to third. Ioki singled down the right-field line to score Iannetta. Smith then singled to score O’Malley and Cano loaded the bases with another single. Ioki scored when Cruz hit into a double-play. Kyle Seager ended Chavez’ fiasco with a three-run home run, giving Seattle an 11-1 lead.
Michael Saunders hit a solo home run to lead off the sixth, but Iwakuma gave up just two runs on four hits over six innings and improved his record to 11-6 on the season.
With Drew Storen pitching in the eighth, Smith walked and Cano doubled down the right-field line. Cruz then hit his second home run of the game over the left-field porch. Cruz now has 58 RBIs on the year.
“I think it’s a great hitter’s ballpark,” Cruz said.
In the eighth, Saunders hit his second solo shot over the left-field fence off Wade LeBlanc. Then Justin Smoak went deep, scoring Tulowitzki in the process.