Phillies make ninth inning comeback against Mariners

By: Rebecca Serad, Sports Talk Philly Staff 

Final: Philadelphia Phillies 5, Seattle Mariners 4  ❖  Attendance: 29,505

SEATTLE — The Philadelphia Phillies (26-51) were looking to build off their win against the Seattle Mariners (39-41) last night. They did just that. Starter Mark Leiter Jr. battled through five innings, allowing four runs on nine hits. Three of those runs were a result of solo homers, which speaks to Leiter's issues with consistency in this outing. Ricardo Pinto was fantastic in relief, throwing three scoreless innings and earning his first Major League win. Hector Neris earned his seventh save of the season.

The Phillies offense got three runs fairly early on, but the bats were then silent until the ninth inning. Ty Kelly hit his first home-run as a Phillie, and Tommy Joseph sparked the ninth inning rally with a solo homer to left field. Aaron Altherr extended his hitting streak to 10 games. It's a good sign to see the Phillies make a comeback late in the game, instead of playing with the defeatist attitude that has been fairly consistent this season.

WP: Ricardo Pinto (1-0, 6.00 ERA)  ❖  LP: Edwin Diaz (2-3, 3.77 ERA)  ❖  SV: Hector Neris (7)


Hub:   Game Summary      Starting Pitchers     At the Plate      Bullpen      What's Next


Game Summary

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
PHI 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 5 7 1
SEA
1 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 4 11 0

The Mariners struck first in today's game. Jean Segura led off the bottom of the first with a bloop single to center field. Ben Gamel and Robinson Cano were retired on a fly out and a line out, respectively. This brought Nelson Cruz to the plate. During his at-bat, Segura stole second. Phils catcher Andrew Knapp's throw went into center field, allowing Segura to advance to third. That proved to be a crucial error, as Segura promptly scored on a single by Cruz to give the Mariners a 1-0 lead. Kyle Seager followed with an infield single to put runners on first and second with two outs for right fielder Mitch Haniger. He struck out for the final out, but the Mariners were still able to take an early lead with their ace on the mound.

The Phillies took the lead in the third. Knapp started the rally with an infield single. Ty Kelly followed with a no-doubt-about-it homer over the right-center field wall. Daniel Nava followed with a single. He moved up to third on a single to right field by Freddy Galvis. This brought Aaron Altherr to the plate with runners on first and third and no outs. He struck out for the first out of the inning. Designated hitter Tommy Joseph walked to load the bases. Odubel Herrera hit a ground ball to Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano. This would have been a traditional double play, but Joseph stopped running partway and forced Cano to tag him out. Joseph's excellent base-running decision allowed Herrera to reach first safely and Nava to score. Galvis was caught in a run-down between third and home, and despite this being the third out, Nava's run still counted.

The Mariners fought back in the fourth. Third baseman Kyle Seager led off the frame with a solo home-run to right field. After a strike-out by Haniger, Danny Valencia homered to left field to tie the game at three runs apiece. Jarrod Dyson followed with a single to left field. One out later, Segura singled to put runners on first and second with two outs for Gamel. He lined out for the final inning, but the game was tied and it was obvious that Phillies starter Mark Leiter Jr. was struggling.

The Mariners took the lead in the fifth inning. Cano hit a monster homer to center field, which was the third solo homer that Leiter had allowed in the game. Cruz followed with a strike out and Seager flied out to center for the first and second outs of the inning. After much contention about whether Haniger hit a foul tip or if he was hit by a pitch, it was ultimately called a foul tip. It didn't end up making a difference, as he struck out for the final out.

It seemed like the Phillies would go down without a fight. After all, they hadn't scored since the third inning. However, they knew what they needed to do against Mariners closer Edwin Diaz. Joseph led off with a home-run to left field to tie the game at four runs apiece. Herrera and Franco both struck out to put two outs on the board. Cameron Perkins worked a walk to put the winning run on first base. He moved up to second on a balk. Knapp hit a single to right-center field to score Perkins and give the Phils the lead. The Mariners opted to take out Diaz in favor of Steve Cishek. He struck out Kelly to end the inning, but the Phillies had done just enough to put themselves in line to get the win.

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Starting Pitchers

  IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Mark Leiter Jr. 5.0 9 4 4 0 6 3 4.20
Felix Hernandez 6.0 5 3 3 3 5 1 4.66

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At the Plate

Phillies

  • Ty Kelly: 1-4, R, HR, 2 RBI, .196 AVG
  • Tommy Joseph: 1-3, R, HR, RBI, .250 AVG
  • Andrew Knapp: 2-3, R, RBI, .250 AVG

Mariners

  • Jean Segura: 3-5, R, .336 AVG
  • Kyle Seager: 2-4, R, HR, RBI, .253 AVG
  • Robinson Cano: 2-4, R, HR, RBI, .282 AVG

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Bullpen

Phillies

  • Ricardo Pinto (6th, 7th, 8th): 3.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 SO, 0 HR, 6.00 ERA
  • Hector Neris (9th): 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR, 3.41 ERA

Mariners

  • James Pazos (7th): 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, 0 HR, 3.00 ERA
  • Nick Vincent (8th): 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR, 1.71 ERA
  • Edwin Diaz (9th): 0.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO, 1 HR, 3.77 ERA
  • Steve Cishek (9th): 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR, 4.38 ERA

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What's Next

  • Friday, June 30, 2017: at New York Mets, 7:10 p.m.
    • Citi Field
    • RHP Ben Lively (1-2, 3.90 ERA) vs. RHP Jacob deGrom (7-3, 3.71 ERA)
    • TV: CSN; Radio: SportsRadio 94 WIP

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