Smoke, Cano’s bat thicken plot in AL West
SEATTLE — It rose into a smoky sky and landed below the three retired numbers in left-center field. Robinson Cano’s return from exile, an 80-game suspension for violating Major League Baseball’s policy regarding performance-enhancing drugs, felt complete.
If his Mariners team advances to postseason play, Cano cannot participate. His transgression prevents it. Helping Seattle to get there, though, is allowed. His three-run homer in the eighth inning gave the Mariners a 7-4 victory over the Astros in the opener of a three-game series Monday night.
Closer Edwin Diaz had no problem preserving it, sending the Astros back into a tie with Oakland for the AL West lead and pulling the Mariners within 3½ games.
In 2016, Cano slashed .351/ .405/.779 against the Astros with nine homers and 25 RBIs in 19 games. Monday, Cano struck his first home run since he was reinstated from suspension, his 15th career dinger against the Astros and the first long ball yielded by Collin McHugh since July 25.
McHugh (5-2) entered a tied game in the seventh inning. His 1.12 ERA was the second lowest of any major league reliever. Opponents had mustered a .470 OPS against him.
After Denard Span launched a seventh-inning, ground-rule double, McHugh induced a weak popup from Kyle Seager. Ben Gamel was frozen on a backdoor slider to end the frame and escape damage.
Replicating the feat was impossible. With one out in the eighth, McHugh fired a first-pitch fastball to Dee Gordon. Gordon watched it for a strike.
After watching a second, Gordon became incensed at plate umpire Mike Muchlinski. The two began exchanging words. Mariners manager Scott Servais jogged out to intervene, stepping in front of his player to berate the umpire.
Muchlinski ejected Servais, who pointed his index finger at the umpire’s chest. The crowd of 27,072 roared in delight, and Gordon composed himself.
Three pitches later, Gordon chopped a slow roller to first base. McHugh did not get a favorable jump from the mound to cover first base, though it might have not mattered. Gordon is one of the game’s fastest baserunners. He beat out the infield single.
Mitch Haniger coaxed a sevenpitch walk, allowing Cano to the plate. McHugh left a 1-0 fastball on the outside corner. Cano pulverized it, starting fireworks into an already hazy sky.
Wildfires in the Pacific Northwest created an eerie setting. Gray clouds set a background for a layer of smoke that thickened as night grew on a tense ballgame.
Seattle’s air quality index in the third inning measured at 187. AirNow.gov recommends “people with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion. Everyone else should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion.”
Nevertheless, they played baseball. The Mariners trotted out the remains of their once unquestioned ace, Felix Hernandez, who held serve on a night Seattle could ill afford to tax its bullpen.
Hernandez’s decline was swift. Once his franchise’s unquestioned face, the six-time All-Star carried a 5.62 ERA into Monday night’s start. Only one qualified major league starting pitcher possessed a higher mark.
Last week in Houston, Hernandez was informed of a demotion to the bullpen, a blatantly warranted — but remarkable — move for a man who won the 2010 American League Cy Young.
Hernandez’s return to the rotation was happenstance. James Paxton absorbed a hard line drive off his left forearm during his last start. The injury placed Seattle’s current ace on the disabled list and forced its former one to oppose the defending World Series champions.
In six innings, Hernandez yielded four runs. Marwin Gonzalez was responsible for all of them.
Against his fellow Venezuelan, Gonzalez was 6-for-18 in 21 previous plate appearances. Monday, he struck Hernandez’s fourth pitch of the game off a facade in the second deck of the right-field seats, affording Houston a onerun lead before the Mariners swung a bat.
Hernandez permitted four straight baserunners to begin the third. He jumped ahead of Tony Kemp 0-2, only to walk the Astros’ nine-hole hitter. Alex Bregman followed with a single.
Gonzalez scored them both with a ringing double. After ceding a single to Yuli Gurriel, Hernandez uncorked a wild pitch. Gonzalez scurried in from third base while Mike Zunino searched for the baseball. Gurriel took second.
No Astro reached scoring position afterward.