Ex-Mariners help Diamondbacks avoid sweep with 3-2 win over M’s

SEATTLE – With the bases loaded, no outs, and the heart of the Seattle Mariners’ lineup coming up, Scott Servais had a good feeling in the third inning Sunday afternoon.

And why wouldn’t he with the way his club has been playing of late?

“We had ‘em right where we wanted ‘em,” the Mariners manager said.

Until they didn’t.

The Mariners couldn’t come through with that one breakthrough at-bat and, ultimately, couldn’t complete a series sweep of the reigning National League champion Arizona Diamondbacks.

Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt wiggled out of the bases-loaded jam in the third, buying time for ex-Mariners Eugenio Suarez and Ketel Marte to spark a late rally in the Diamondbacks’ 3-2 victory before a crowd of 33,474 at T-Mobile Park.

“We had our shot,” Servais said. ” … I knew today it’s going to be tough to sweep them. It’s frustrating because I thought we were right there.”

The Mariners (15-13) got another dazzling performance from one of their starting pitchers – this time from Logan Gilbert – but their Sunday “B” lineup struck out a season-high-tying 15 times.

Josh Rojas hit another leadoff homer against his old club – the second time he did that in the series – but the Mariners managed just five hits (all in the first three innings) and didn’t have any walks.

Leo Rivas, in his first major league plate appearance, hit a triple off Pfaadt to lead off the third inning, then scored on Julio Rodriguez’s bloop single to give the Mariners a 2-1 lead.

The 26-year-old Rivas had spent nine years in the minors with three different organizations.

“Being honest, man, I was just trying to put the ball in play — just put the ball in play, and thank God that happened,” Rivas said. “I was thinking, ‘Please drop, please drop, please drop — don’t catch it, don’t catch it.’ I was running all the way with a smile.”

He is the first Mariner to record a triple in his first plate appearance since Yuniesky Betancourt on July 28, 2005 vs. Cleveland.

Jorge Polanco followed with a soft groundball to Suarez at third base – officially recorded as a single – to load the bases with no outs.

But Pfaadt got Ty France to fly out to left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who made a nice catch coming in and sliding on his knees, forcing Rojas to hold up at third base.

Mitch Garver, continuing his rough start to the season, followed with a routine grounder to Suarez, who started a 5-4-3 inning-ending double play.

The Mariners didn’t have a single base runner after that. Their final 20 batters went down in order.

The way the Mariners’ roster is constructed, Servais expects this team to regularly be in tight games. But he also expects the offense will have to come through with some crooked numbers more regularly.

“I do think we can get a lot better [offensively],” he said. “Because we’re not going to be in every game 3-2 or 2-1. You’re going to have to find some [ways] to win 7-5 or 7-6 … and we have the offense to do that. But you’ve got to get multiple guys going at the same time.”

The good news is they do have all their guys in the starting rotation going on a historic run.

Gilbert followed George Kirby’s masterful performance from Saturday with another gem of his own, pitching into the seventh inning, striking out nine with one walk and four hits allowed.

Christian Walker turned on one of Gilbert’s few mistakes – a 96-mph fastball right down the middle – and hit a 422-foot homer to left field to tie the score 1-1 in the second inning.

Suarez, his ex-teammate, then torched a 91-mph cutter off the wall in left field, a 105.5-mph double that scored Joc Pederson for the tying run in the seventh inning.

It was Suarez’s only hit of the series, and the last pitch Gilbert would throw Sunday.

Gilbert wasn’t unhappy with the location of the cutter to Suarez – he got it up in the zone, as he intended – but he was frustrated that he had fallen behind in the count 2-1.

“That’s the main thing. You’ve got to get ahead, especially in that situation,” Gilbert said. “Geno’s a good hitter. He put a good swing on it. Probably not the best pitch I threw, but you take your chances.”

Mariners starting pitchers have allowed 17 earned runs in their past 16 starts.

The Diamondbacks (13-16) came into the series leading MLB in runs scored, averaging 5.7 runs per game. The Mariners’ staff held Arizona to five total runs in the three-game series.

“George set the tone yesterday for me trying to go out there and just do my job,” Gilbert said. “Everybody’s been good, bullpen has been really good. Hitters have been doing their thing, really good defense behind us, too.”

In six starts this season, Gilbert has a 2.03 ERA with 44 strikeouts and nine walks in 40 innings. He leads the American League in strikeouts and innings pitched, and ranks third in opponents’ batting average (. 163).

“Our pitching has carried us – it has been outstanding,” Servais said.

Marte, part of the 2016 trade that brought Mitch Haniger to Seattle, hit a two-out double off the wall in right field to score Kevin Newman, who had drawn a leadoff walk against Mariners reliever Trent Thornton in the eighth inning.

Thornton hadn’t allowed a run since March 30, ending his streak of 10 scoreless innings.