ANAHEIM, Calif. — The gains are incremental, agonizing and reliant on other teams’ failures and successes in games around the country. And to sit and analyze the American League wild-card race and its various iterations would only be distracting for manager Scott Servais and the Seattle Mariners.
Realistically, the Mariners are doing the best thing they can do — win games against teams they should beat.
That continued Monday night at Angels Stadium. Seattle got a solid start from lefty Ariel Miranda and broke open a close game in the seventh inning to roll to an easy 8-1 win.
With the victory, Seattle improved to 76-68. And it allowed the Mariners to move up a game in the wild-card standings to 2 games out of the second wild-card spot.
It was the Mariners’ sixth straight win. At the start of the winning streak, they were six games back in the wild-card standings and season-ending obituaries were being written.
But Servais believed his team had another run in it. This would be that run. How long can it continue? Well, getting outings from back-of-rotation starters like Miranda like they did Monday will help.
The spindly lefty gave the Mariners his best start since being acquired at the trade deadline. Miranda worked six shutout innings, allowing just three hits with a walk and three strikeouts to improve to 4-1 on the season and lower his earned-run average to 4.10.
Miranda worked out of minor jams in the first, third and sixth innings, showing composure and confidence in the slider he’s been working on with pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre.
In an odd juxtaposition, the pitcher Miranda was traded for, Wade Miley, also pitched Monday night and had an awful outing for the Orioles. The veteran lefty pitched 1 1/3 innings, giving up six runs on eight hits in Baltimore’s 12-2 loss at Fenway, which helped Seattle in the wild-card race.
Since the deal, Miranda has pitched 39 1/3 innings for Seattle, giving up 16 earned runs for a 3.63 ERA with 16 walks and 26 strikeouts. Meanwhile, Miley has made eight starts and has a 1-5 record. In 35 1/3 innings pitched, he’s given up 33 runs for an 8.41 ERA. He’s also owed $8.75 million for next season.
Leading 2-0, Seattle broke open the game in the seventh inning against Angels starter Ricky Nolasco and reliever Deolis Guerra.
A leadoff double from Leonys Martin — his third of the game — started the inning. Martin yanked a line drive into the right-field corner and might have gotten a triple had a fan not reached over and grabbed the ball. Nolasco then hit Mike Zunino with a pitch to end his outing.
The Angels brought in Guerra to face Ketel Marte. With the infield expecting a bunt, Marte still put down a perfect one near the third-base line that went for an infield single instead of a sacrifice.
With the bases loaded and no outs Norichika Aoki poked a single up the middle to score two runs. Guerra then balked in a runner from third and another scored on a throwing error at the plate to make it 6-0.
After Nick Vincent gave up a run in the seventh, Ben Gamel, who was inserted into the game for defense, belted his first big-league homer, driving an opposite-field two-run shot to left-center off lefty Brett Oberholtzer.
The Mariners grabbed a 1-0 lead against Nolasco in the second inning. Martin slashed his first double. He advanced to third on a wild pitch and then jogged home when Zunino lined a two-strike curveball into right-center.
Robinson Cano continued his brilliant bounce back season, belting a towering moon shot of a solo homer in the third inning to make it 2-0. That tied a career high in homers for a season for Cano. He hit 33 homers back in 2012.
