Franklin Gutierrez took a giant leap in his comeback from stomach issues today knocking a 385-foot leadoff home run in the fourth to help the Mariners win the final game of the series with the Twins 3-0. Gutierrez had two of the Mariners five hits today and also scored after walking on a screaming double down the right field line by Adam Kennedy to put the M’s up 1-0 in the Second. Kennedy then scored on a single by red-hot shortstop Brendan Ryan who had a triple later in the game and is now batting .260 after going 12-21 on the road trip.
Erik Bedard went six scoreless innings to extend his scoreless innings pitched streak total to 15, using all of his pitches and getting some help from his defense when the Twins threatened in the fourth and fifth innings. Bedard now moves to 3-4 on the year and is a big reason that the Mariners will be coming home to face the Yankees this weekend with a 23-24 record after a fabulous 5-1 road trip. But as good as the starting pitching has been let’s not forget that the bullpen has been fantastic as well lately and today was no exception as David Pauley pitched a couple of scoreless frames before handing the ball to the closer
Texas won as well today so the Mariners remain a game and a half back in the AL West awaiting the results of the A’s-Angels game tonight to see if they will move into second place. It has been so fun to be able to watch not only the games, but the scoreboard in the past week during this improbable surge by our sailors for the who fly home for a little R&R Thursday before the big weekend series with the Yankees.
I just got the call today to go play a softball tournament in Tri-Cities this weekend and thus won’t be able to make it down to the Safe this Memorial Day weekend as planned, but since I turn 53 Tuesday anytime I get asked to play myself these days I need to jump on it as my playing career is definitely waning!
I will try to watch the games on ROOT over there when possible, and hopefully my partner Scott can fill-in here at Jeff”s Mariners Fan Blog “Where the Fans Call the Plays”
Go M’s! https://jeffsmariners.com