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The Angels embarrassed the Mariners with a 7-run 9th
Monday’s Say Hey, Baseball features a ridiculous 9th-inning comeback, Mike Trout’s worst season, and an umpire vs. an inflated condom.
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
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The Mariners were up on the Angels 9-3 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning on Sunday. That’s a pretty great place to be: Seattle needed just three more outs, they were multiple runs away from there even being a save situation for reliever Casey Fien, and if things did go south, the dominant Edwin Diaz was waiting to close out the weekend. The thing about being in a pretty great place in baseball is that sometimes, it’s still not enough. The Mariners ended up losing this game 10-9, as the Angels walked off with a seven-run inning.
Albert Pujols began the inning with a solo shot to make it 9-4, and then the Angels loaded the bases with a Cliff Pennington walk, C.J. Cron single, and a Ben Revere free pass. Diaz then came in for Fien and induced a ground out that scored a run for the Halos, and then he struck out Martin Maldonado. It was 9-5, and the Angels were down to their last out with Diaz mitigating the damage, but it was not to be for Seattle.
Yunel Escobar hit a two-run double on a grounder to right field, scoring two runs, and then Diaz threw a wild pitch that advanced Escobar to third. Now 9-7, Diaz walked Kole Calhoun and Mike Trout, bringing Pujols up for the second time in the frame. Pujols singled, scoring Calhoun, and Pennington followed that up with a two-run single that pushed Trout across as the walkoff run. To make matters worse — yes, they can get worse than blowing a seven-run lead in the ninth — the Mariners were looking for just their second win of 2017, and attempting to avoid a sweep by the Angels, who had already come back against their pen the day before.
Baseball is super mean.
- You’ve read about the Angels’ dismantling the Mariners in the ninth inning, but you can watch it happen, too!
- Felix Hernandez and Mike Trout had a 14-pitch duel in the bottom of the first on Saturday, a duel that Fernandez won before the bullpen blew that game for Seattle, too.
- Mike Trout is awesome, but he does have one stain on his big-league record, Let Ben Lindbergh tell you all about it.
- Pirates fans can play Super Mario Bros. on an LED screen in right field, if you’re wondering which MLB stadium is the best one.
- Only one team has Andrew Miller, and Michael Baumann writes that the search to find comparable bullpen tools could lead to innovation.
- This umpire stomped on an inflated condom that delayed a Brewers-Cubs game. Not all heroes wear capes, etc.
- Could Manny Machado be one of the great all-time third basemen? It’s a question Ken Rosenthal asked in his latest column.
- Anthony Rizzo joined former teammate and current Dancing with the Stars, uh, dancer and star, David Ross at his rehearsal. There was dancing.
- Tim Tebow hit another home run, extending his quest to infuriate Keith Law for as long as possible.
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