Mike Zunino went 3-for-3 with two doubles and a home run against his former team as the Cleveland Guardians defeated the host Seattle Mariners 6-5 in 10 innings on Sunday afternoon.
Enyel De Los Santos (1-0) pitched a scoreless inning of relief and Trevor Stephan worked the 10th for his first save. The Guardians took three of the four games in the season-opening series.
Cleveland scored the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th after starting the inning with a runner on second, per extra-inning rules.
After striking out Amed Rosario, reliever Penn Murfee (0-1) intentionally walked Jose Ramirez. Josh Bell then walked on four straight pitches to load the bases. After pinch hitter Josh Naylor was announced, the M’s countered with lefty Gabe Speier.
Naylor hit a soft chopper in front of the plate that Speier fielded and tossed to catcher Cal Raleigh for a forceout. Raleigh tried to turn a double play but his throw to first was low and Ty France couldn’t pick it out of the dirt, allowing Ramirez to score the deciding run from second.
The Mariners took an early lead as Julio Rodriguez homered to right on the first pitch in the bottom of the first inning.
The Guardians took a 3-1 lead in the second as Bell led off with a walk and moved to second on Andres Gimenez’s single to right. On a 1-0 pitch, Zunino hit a towering fly to left that just cleared the fence.
Seattle regained the lead with a three-run third. After Kolten Wong walked with one out, France lined a single to center. Eugenio Suarez singled up the middle to make it 3-2 and both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Raleigh brought both home with a double to deep center.
The Guardians tied it in the fifth as Zunino led off with a double and Myles Straw bunted for a base hit that advanced the runner. Zunino scored as Steven Kwan grounded into a double play.
Suarez doubled with one out in the bottom of the inning, took third on a wild pitch and scored on first baseman Bell’s fielding error to give Seattle a 5-4 lead.
Cleveland tied it in the seventh as Zunino led off with a double to shallow center. Pinch runner Will Brennan took third on Straw’s flyout out to right and scored as Kwan singled through the right side of the drawn-in infield.
–Field Level Media
