CLEVELAND — Given the circumstances of the team they were playing and who was starting against them, the Mariners couldn’t have had a more ideal start Saturday.

Facing All-Star right-hander Danny Salazar and the Indians, Nelson Cruz blasted a two-run homer and Kyle Seager followed with his first homer of the season. The back-to-back, first-pitch blasts gave Seattle a 3-0 lead before Cleveland came to bat.

But any good feelings from the unexpected hot start, and more important, the Mariners’ lead, were gone when the bottom of the first mercifully came to end.

Seattle starter Yovani Gallardo took the gift his offense handed him and treated it like an unwanted wedding present, re-gifting it to the Indians in the form of walks, hits and four runs in the bottom of the frame.

Eight innings later, the Indians were shaking hands following a 4-3 win over Seattle on a miserably cold and windy day at Progressive Field.

“You look up after a very good top of the first and we’re down,” manager Scott Servais said. “And that was about it.”

Indeed, the Mariners didn’t register another hit after the first inning and only got one base runner to second, which makes a comeback difficult.

Still, that the Mariners found themselves trailing 4-3 after the first inning is not something that should be expected or accepted. Gallardo, a veteran of more than 270 big-league starts, knows better than to put himself or his team in such a situation. It didn’t even need to be a shutdown inning. It just had to be something different from what occurred.

“That can’t happen, especially after we get up three runs in the first inning off a guy like Salazar,” Gallardo said. “It definitely can’t happen.”

How did it go so wrong?

Gallardo had inconsistent command with his fastball almost immediately. He walked the first two batters he faced. After getting Michael Brantley to fly out for the first out, he walked Edwin Encarnacion to load the bases.

“He didn’t have a release point and he couldn’t get the ball down,” Servais said. “He struggled and didn’t make a quick enough adjustment.”

The Indians unloaded when Gallardo finally got his pitches around the strike zone. Jose Ramirez lined a two-run double into right field to trim the Mariners’ lead to 3-2.

After Gallardo struck out Jason Kipnis for the second out and seemed poised to escape with a lead, Lonnie Chisenhall prolonged the agony, bouncing a ground ball up the middle to score two more runs, putting Cleveland up 4-3. It took two more batters but Gallardo finally ended the interminable inning.

The final tally of the frame for Gallardo: Nine batters faced, four runs allowed on three hits with three walks, two strikeouts and 38 pitches.

“I was the one that put those guys on base,” he said. “Walks, walks are going to find their way to score.”

It was a major regression after walking just one batter over 61/3 innings in his previous outing.

“It’s definitely frustrating after that last start I had in Oakland where I just pounded the strike zone,” he said. “I’ve got to stay away from that big inning.”

To Gallardo’s credit, he salvaged the start, rebounding with five scoreless innings.

“He hung in there and that was really good,” Servais said. “But one bad inning early can get you and it did today.”

The Indians’ outburst of run support allowed Salazar to reset and shrug off his forgettable top of the first. He worked into the seventh, allowing just two more base runners.

“His stuff is really good and he throws really hard with some movement on the fastball,” Seager said.

And while a one-run deficit should not be insurmountable, it can be slightly more difficult to overcome against Cleveland with the closing duo of Andrew Miller and Cody Allen.

“You know what they have in the ‘pen,” Seager said.

Miller replaced Salazar with one out and a runner on first in the seventh. He walked Carlos Ruiz, but then came back to strike out pinch hitter Taylor Motter and Jean Segura.

Miller was just as dominant in the eighth, striking out Ben Gamel and Robinson Cano and getting Cruz to fly out.

Allen notched his sixth save of the season, getting Seager to line out and striking out Daniel Vogelbach and Guillermo Heredia to end the game.

Cano doubled with one out in the first and Cruz ambushed the first pitch he saw from Salazar, sending it into the trees in center. Seager followed a similar plan, jumping on the first pitch and sending it over the wall in deep right center.