For a team that has struggled offensively, rookie Ryan Bliss provided a much-needed spark Saturday for the Seattle Mariners.
Bliss, making his third start at second base since being called up May 27, got his first major league hit, stole two bases and scored three times in the Mariners’ 9-0 win over the visiting Los Angeles Angels.
The American League West-leading Mariners will try for a sweep of the three-game series against the last-place Angels on Sunday in Seattle.
“He was front and center in so much action out there,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said of Bliss, who was in the ninth spot in the batting order.
Bliss contributed to all three innings in which the Mariners scored.
In the third, he coaxed a leadoff walk off Angels starter Reid Detmers, stole second on a pickoff attempt, swiped third and scored on Julio Rodriguez’s single.
In the next inning, Bliss drew a two-out walk to load the bases for J.P. Crawford’s grand slam.
In the sixth, Bliss followed Luke Raley’s leadoff homer with his first hit, a liner to right-center. Bliss again created havoc on the basepaths as he tagged up and took second on Crawford’s flyout to left.
Bliss scored on Rodriguez’s bloop single to center, and Cal Raleigh added a two-run double for the final margin.
Teammates in the dugout called for the ball after Bliss’ first hit so that the 24-year-old would have a memento.
“Right now I’m going to hold on to it until the offseason,” Bliss said of the ball. “Then I’ll probably put it up somewhere nice in front of everything in the house I have in the offseason.”
The Angels’ Detmers, who was pulled after allowing Crawford’s slam, was optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake after the loss.
“He just hasn’t been able to consistently put hitters away,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “Like today, he was ahead of hitters all day long, but then the next thing you know it was 3-2. He just couldn’t command his slider, which is his pitch. The whole idea is to get him in an environment where it’s not about results. It’s about finding your stuff.”
After a sparkling start to the season in which he won his first three starts, Detmers has dropped six straight decisions.
“It just sucks — there’s no other way to put it,” Detmers said. “I just have to be better. You can take it two ways. You can pout about it and not get better or go there and get to work and figure some stuff out and get called back up.”
In Sunday’s series finale, the Angels plan to send Griffin Canning (2-4, 5.08 ERA) to the mound to oppose Seattle’s Luis Castillo (4-6, 3.28) in a matchup of right-handers.
Canning, who allowed three runs or less in each of his five appearances in May, is 2-1 with a 3.38 ERA in five career starts against the Mariners.
Castillo, who has rebounded after losing his first four starts this season, is 3-1 with a 3.93 ERA in six lifetime starts against the Angels.
The Mariners have won six of their past seven games while the Angels have lost seven of eight, including four in a row.
–Field Level Media