The Indians came in as one of the hottest teams in baseball. The Mariners were trying to right their ship at home. On Monday night, the series between the two contending American League clubs swung in Cleveland’s direction once again, as right-hander Trevor Bauer outpitched Seattle left-hander James Paxton in a 3-1 victory at Safeco Field.
While the Tribe has now won six consecutive games to remain in first place in the AL Central, the Mariners’ slump continued. They have lost four in a row and fell to four games behind the Rangers in the AL West.
“It seems like it doesn’t really matter who we throw out there defensively, pitching … we seem to get the job done,” Indians outfielder Rajai Davis said. “And no matter who’s on the mound on the other side, it really doesn’t get into the minds of these guys. We’re going out there battling. We’re putting really good innings together, rally innings where we can put up a bunch of runs together. It’s been really nice.”
The Mariners took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Ketel Marte singled, stole second base, moved to third on a Shawn O’Malley groundout and scored on a single by Norichika Aoki. But that lead didn’t last long. The Indians capitalized on an error in the fourth to take a 2-1 lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Davis added an insurance run with a homer in the fifth.
Bauer took care of most of the rest. He pitched a season-high 7 2/3 innings and struck out a season-high 10 batters to improve to 4-2. Paxton also struck out 10 in an impressive outing for the Mariners.
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