The Seattle Mariners (3-0) opened their home portion of the 2019 season with a short musical concert by favorite son Macklemore, an all too familiar fireworks show, a video tribute to fallen local heroes and a patriotic guitar solo of the Star Bangled Banner by Pearl Jam Mike McCready which all added up to a launching pad for the new look Mariners who earned a 12-4 slugfest win over the defending World Series Champions Boston Red Sox (0-1).
After giving up a run in each of the first two innings, the Mariners used a three-run bottom of the second inning to seize the lead on a Tim Beckham home run and a Domingo Santana double scored David Freitas and Dee Gordon to give the Mariners the 3-2 lead after two innings.
A four-run third inning that saw an Edward Encarnacion homer run, another Beckham home run that scored Ryan Healey and a David Freitas sac fly that brought in Ryan Healey gave the Mariners a 7-2 run they never relinquished.
A Ryan Healey home run in the bottom of 5th made it 8-2 Mariners. Boston scored two runs in the top of the six inning and any thoughts of a come back by the visitors was squashed in the bottom of the sixth when the Mariners scored two runs for the 10-4 lead.
Domingo Santa’s two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh had 45,601 Mariner fans dancing in the aisles and asking why can’t we win it all.
The Mariners front office pushed the reboot button during the offseason and unloaded the majority of the team’s aging superstars. Simply put the Mariners took the proverbial one step back to take two steps forward. The talk during the offseason had been about the Mariners expected to win two years down the road rather than this year.
Mariner starting pitcher Marco Gonzales ( 2-0, 4.76) was credited with the win and became the 15th pitcher in Major League history since 1908 to start and win two of his clubs’ first three games. Gonzales is the first pitcher to accomplish the feat since the Rays Victor Zambrano in 2004. Boston pitcher Chirs Sale ( 0-1, 21.00 ) was credit with the loss.
