Big seventh inning lifts M’s past A’s

Haniger, Vogelbach homer in seventh as Mariners rally to beat Oakland

SEATTLE — A Mitch Mash. Then a Vogel-bomb.

That would do it.

The Seattle Mariners did a lot of damage with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. And then some.

Mitch Haniger turned on a full-count cutter, clearly eyeing it all the way as he sent it 397 feet over the left-field wall for a go-ahead three-run home run.

And Daniel Vogelbach two batters later followed with his first career home run, shooting a pitch 354 feet over the right-field wall.

Those big hits were the catalysts in the Mariners’ 7-4 victory against the visiting Oakland Athletics on Friday in their first matchup of the season against an American League West opponent.

“It’s everything you dream of,” Vogelbach said of his first home run. “It was awesome. Definitely a weight off my shoulders. Now I can just go play and that’s what I’m going to try to do.”

That rally, though.

The Mariners had one base hit since the first inning. They had two outs, no runners on base and trailed 3-2.

But a lot of good things happen for the Mariners when they get to the top of their lineup.

Jean Segura’s base hit kick-started it. Then Robinson Cano reached base for the fourth time in the game, drawing his third walk.

Gordon, Segura and Cano have combined to bat .357 this season.

So that set the table for Haniger, who already had an RBI single earlier.

“Just fastball inside and just trying to drive the ball and stay through it,” Haniger said. “And I was able to do that.”

He finished 2-for-4 with four RBIs.

“Robby understands the situation. They’re not going to give in to Robby,” Servais said. “And Hani has been behind him. Really good and really consistent for us. He’s not Nelson Cruz, but he’s certainly proving to be worthy to be hitting behind Robby. A lot of clutch RBIs deep in counts and he continues to battle.”

The big seventh inning negated the power play from Athletics’ designated hitter Khris Davis, who hit two home runs — he’s hit 17 home runs against the Mariners in his six seasons.

His solo shot in the top of the eighth inning cut the lead to 7-4, but Edwin Diaz shut the door in the ninth inning for his fifth save.

Diaz struck out one batter and worked around a two-out walk. Only James Paxton (21) has more strikeouts than Diaz (13) despite six Mariners pitchers having thrown more innings than Diaz so far.

“The top of our order has been really, really good,” Servais said. “They’ve been driving the train, so to speak and we’re going to need them to continue to do that. We’re going to get some guys back here who are used to hitting in the middle of our lineup, but right now you can’t say enough about Haniger, Robby taking his walks, what Jean has done, Dee at the top and Seags is starting to heat up bit time.”

Seager’s double in the first inning tied Raul Ibanez for fifth-most in Mariners history (216). And he now has 535 RBIs, tying him with Bret Boone for eighth-most in Mariners’ history.