France HRs, Gonzales solid as Mariners top Jays, avoid sweep
By IAN HARRISON
Associated Press
TORONTO (AP) — Ty France hit a two-run homer, Marco Gonzales pitched six solid innings to snap a five-start winless streak and the Seattle Mariners beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-1 on Wednesday night to avoid a three-game sweep.
Cal Raleigh and Abraham Toro each hit solo home runs and Jesse Winker added a sacrifice fly for the Mariners, who bounced back with 10 hits after being blanked for the sixth time this season in Tuesday’s 3-0 loss.
Raleigh said Gonzales had all five of his pitches working against the Blue Jays.
“Marco is awesome to catch,” Raleigh said. “It’s a lot of fun when the guy can put a ball wherever he wants. I don’t feel like people give him enough credit.”
Gonzales (2-4) allowed one run and five hits, walked three and struck out two to win for the first time since April 15 against Houston.
“I feel like I’m just confident in my stuff right now and just feel like I’m throwing the ball well,” Gonzales said.
Andrés Muñoz worked the seventh, Paul Sewald pitched the eighth and Diego Castillo finished.
Despite a sore right hip, France went 3 for 5 with two singles in addition to his home run.
“It says a lot about his toughness,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said.
Adam Frazier also had three hits for Seattle.
Toronto still has not swept a series this season. The Blue Jays have won the first two games of a series twice, doing so against Texas on April 8 and 9, and in Houston on April 22 and 23.
Seattle got four hits, all singles, in the first inning, but the only run came on Winker’s sacrifice fly.
“It felt like I got through 50 pitches in the first inning,” Blue Jays right-hander Kevin Gausman said.
Gausman actually threw 27 pitches in the opening inning.
Toronto tied it when Gonzales issued a bases-loaded walk to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with two outs in the third. Teoscar Hernández followed by grounding out.
Servais said he didn’t mind Gonzales issuing the dangerous Guerrero a free pass.
“It’s probably the best bases-loaded walk that we’ve had in a while,” Servais said. “You have to know the situation, who’s in the box, where we’re at, and he didn’t give in to Vlad and went and got the next guy out.”
Raleigh broke the 1-all tie by leading off the fifth with a home run, his third.
The homer was the first allowed by Gausman this season, snapping a 57-inning streak dating to last season. Colorado’s C.J. Cron was the last batter to homer off Gausman, doing so last Sept. 26 at Coors Field.
Gausman (3-3) allowed two runs and seven hits in five innings, losing consecutive starts for the first time this season. He walked one and struck out three.
“The game plan was to lay off the stuff down and we did a good job of that, forced his pitch count up and got him out of the game early,” France said.
Frazier hit a two-out single off Trevor Richards in the seventh and France followed with a first-pitch homer, his sixth.
Toro connected off Ross Stripling in the ninth, his fifth.
CANADIAN RAKIN’
Toro is the third Canadian-born Seattle player to hit a home run in Toronto. He joins Michael Saunders (2010, ’12, and ’13) and Jason Bay (2013).
OVER THEM ALL
Raleigh’s homer came against Toronto’s four-man defensive alignment, with second baseman Santiago Espinal stationed out in right field.
“I was telling Cal to bunt and he hit the pitch out of the park,” Servais said.
HIT ME UP
Seattle is 15-3 when out hitting its opponent.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mariners: France said he doesn’t expect his sore hip to keep him out of the lineup Thursday. … 1B Evan White (sports hernia) went 0 for 2 in his first rehab game at Triple-A Tacoma.
Blue Jays: OF Lourdes Gurriel Jr. left after five innings because of a sore left hamstring. He was replaced by Raimel Tapia.
UP NEXT
Mariners: RHP George Kirby (0-0, 0.90) starts Thursday as Seattle wraps up its road trip with a four-game series at Boston. LHP Rich Hill (1-1, 2.89) starts for the Red Sox.
Blue Jays: LHP Hyun Jin Ryu (0-0, 9.00) starts Friday in the opener of a three-game interleague series against Cincinnati. RHP Luis Castillo (0-1, 5.59) goes for the Reds.
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