Carlos Santana hit two home runs, including a grand slam, Ty France had a three-run homer and Logan Gilbert struck out a career-high 11 batters to lift the Seattle Mariners to a 9-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels Monday afternoon in Anaheim, Calif., avoiding a sweep.
The Angels (64-83) won the first three games of the series, helping drop the Mariners (81-65) into the third and final American League wild-card spot. With the win, the Mariners moved to within 1 1/2 games of idle Toronto for the top wild card and one game behind Tampa Bay for the second wild card, pending the Rays’ game later Monday.
Gilbert (13-6) went six innings, allowing one run on four hits and one walk while fanning 11, including two strikeouts of Shohei Ohtani.
Gilbert and Angels starter Jose Suarez (6-8) were locked up in a 1-0 game through four innings, with the only run coming on France’s RBI double in the first.
But in the fifth, Seattle got a one-out walk from Curt Casali and a two-out single by Mitch Haniger. Suarez then hit France with a pitch, loading the bases for Santana.
Suarez fell behind in the count 3-0 before throwing a fastball for a strike. But on a 3-1 pitch, Suarez threw another fastball and Santana hit it an estimated 430 feet to left for a grand slam and a 5-0 Mariners lead.
The Angels got on the scoreboard against Gilbert in the sixth after Ohtani doubled with one out. Matt Duffy followed with a drive to deep left-center, where center fielder Dylan Moore nearly made a running catch at the wall.
Instead, the ball popped out of Moore’s glove as he hit the wall, but Ohtani was only able to advance to third on Duffy’s double. Taylor Ward got Ohtani home anyway with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-1.
France’s three-run homer in the seventh, his 20th of the year, increased Seattle’s lead to 8-1, and Santana’s second homer of the afternoon and 19th of the season made it 9-1 in the ninth.
The Mariners were without outfielder Julio Rodriguez for the third game in a row, the probable Rookie of the Year suffering from a sore lower back. Angels center fielder Mike Trout had the day off for rest.
–Field Level Media
