By Ryan Divish
The Seattle Times
SEATTLE — The frustration of the result never allowed Marco Gonzales to completely enjoy the moment. A walk to the light-hitting Christian Arroyo with two outs in the seventh ended his outing and burned at his insides.
After quickly handing the ball to manager Scott Servais, the Mariners pitcher stalked off the mound to the dugout. Despite Gonzales’ apparent displeasure that it ended an out early, the crowd of 28,599 at Safeco Field acknowledged his outing with a standing ovation.
Maybe it was a good thing to see Gonzales stalk to the dugout, frustrated he couldn’t get that one more out. He wanted the seven complete innings. It’s the sign of someone who believes he can and will do more for the Mariners.
The Mariners improved to 36-22, winning 12 of their past 15 games. With the Houston Astros losing earlier in the evening, Seattle moved into first place in the American League West.
Gonzales delivered yet another solid outing, pitching 62/3 innings, giving up just one run on five hits with two walks and eight strikeouts to improve to 6-3 on the season. The one run allowed in the sixth inning snapped a streak of 241/3 innings without allowing an earned run.
Over his past four outings, Gonzales has posted a 3-0 record with a 0.35 ERA with 20 strikeouts in 26 innings. He’s been everything the Mariners hoped and more.
The Mariners bullpen made sure Gonzales got the victory, making a 3-1 lead stand up. James Pazos needed all of one pitch to end the seventh inning on a ground ball out. Alex Colome pitched a scoreless eighth inning against his old team. And closer Edwin Diaz reaffirmed his role with a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his 20th save.
The Mariners finally broke through against Chris Archer in the third inning. The Rays’ energetic and effective ace who pitches with a flair and emotion that borders on histrionics isn’t a fun at-bat with a biting breaking ball and mid-90s fastball.
But Seattle scratched out a pair of runs against Archer with two outs in the inning. Jean Segura worked a walk and Mitch Haniger singled to start the rally. Nelson Cruz drove in Segura with a crisp single up the middle and Kyle Seager scored Haniger with a double over the head of left fielder Rob Refsnyder.
The Rays’ lone run against Gonzales came in the sixth when Wilson Ramos doubled off the top of the wall in deep left-center, scoring Matt Duffy from first base.
Seattle got the run back immediately in the bottom of the inning. Ryon Healy crushed his ninth homer of the season, sending a leadoff solo blast into Edgar’s Cantina to make it 3-1.
