Crawford's `Father's Day' smash leads M's

 

After a costly sweep at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Seattle Mariners rebounded with a sweep of their own versus the Cleveland Guardians this weekend at T-Mobile Park.

J.P. Crawford celebrated his first Father’s Day as a father, with a second inning grand slam home run leading the M’s to a 6-0 victory yesterday afternoon.

Emerson Hancock threw one of his best games as a Mariner holding the visitors to two hits over seven innings. Hancock struckout four and walked one to improve his record to 3-2.

Randy Arozarena had an eventful game without garnering an official at-bat. The M’s right-fielder walked three times, stole two bases, scored two runs and was hit by a pitch. Arozarena’s tied with former Mariner Ty France (now with the Twins) for the American League lead in hit by pitches.

The Mariners struck for five runs in the second inning. Walks to Arozarena and Mitch Garver sandwiched around Rowdy Tellez’s double loaded the bases with one out.

Third baseman Miles Mastrobuoni, who made a sliding catch on a foul popup in the first, singled home the game’s first run and Crawford lofted a fly ball into the right-field stands for his fifth career grand slam.

Crawford’s spoken a lot this season on how becoming a father for the first time has made him mentally stronger. After circling the bases, Crawford blew a kiss to his daughter Korra, born last December.

``I think that's given me a peace out there,’’ said Crawford of fatherhood, in an interview on the Mariners’ web site. ``Just go out and play. You're a dad now. And that's really, in a sense, all that matters.”

Saturday’s 4-3 win was one Seattle might look back if they have a successful season. The Mariners came back in the bottom of the ninth against Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase, selected the top reliever in the American League,

Jorge Polanco’s single with two out and the bases loaded, drove in J.P. Crawford with the game winner. The Guardians had walked Cal Raleigh to pitch to Polanco. Dylan Moore scored earlier in the inning on a wild pitch.

The Mariners defeated the Guardians in Friday night’s opener with a four-run seventh. Arozarena’s single broke a 2-2 tie. Polanco homered for the M’s in the contest.

Seattle improves to 36-34 on the season and now have a half game lead over Boston (36-35) for the third wild card and final playoff spot. However, every team in the AL with the exception of the Chicago White Sox (admittedly, the Baltimore Orioles and the Athletics would be longshots) have a shot at a playoff berth 2 ½ months into the season.

The Mariners host the Red Sox for three games beginning tonight. Logan Gilbert returns from the disabled list to start for the Mariners (Shohei Ohtani takes the mound for the first time in two seasons, so Gilbert’s return won’t be the biggest baseball story of the day).

The Red Sox come to Seattle with a five-game winning streak and Boston’s the only team to sweep the New York Yankees in a series this year. The teams meet Monday and Tuesday night with a matinee contest on Wednesday.