Field Level Media
May 16, 2021
Mitch Haniger hit his 12th home run of the season to tie Atlanta's Ronald Acuna Jr. for the major league lead as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Cleveland Indians 7-3 Saturday night.
Dylan Moore also went deep for Seattle, which won its second straight game.
Mariners left-hander Justus Sheffield (3-3), making his first appearance against the team that drafted him in the first round in 2014, allowed two runs on five hits in six innings, with two walks and two strikeouts.
Indians right-hander Triston McKenzie (1-2) went 4 1/3 innings and gave up five runs on five hits, with three walks and six strikeouts.
Haniger gave the Mariners an early lead, hitting an 0-1 pitch from McKenzie nearly into the second deck in left-center field with one out in the first.
The score remained 1-0 until the fourth, when McKenzie walked Kyle Seager and Kyle Lewis to lead off. An out later, Moore hit a 2-2 pitch over the center-field wall.
The Mariners added a run in the fifth on Jose Marmolejos' sacrifice fly with the bases loaded.
Sheffield held the Indians hitless in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Trailing 5-0, the Indians finally got to Sheffield in the sixth. Jordan Luplow led off with a walk and Jose Ramirez lined a double to left, his third of the game. Luplow and Ramirez both scored on groundouts.
Sheffield allowed a two-out double to Ramirez in the first but stranded him there.
Eddie Rosario and Harold Ramirez led off the third with singles before Sheffield induced a double-play grounder.
Jose Ramirez doubled leading off the fourth but was called out for running out of the basepaths when Franmil Reyes hit a grounder to third baseman Seager. Rosario walked to put runners at first and second before Sheffield got the final two outs of the inning, his last.
Seattle's Donovan Walton, making his season debut, hit a two-run triple in the eighth to make it 7-2.
Cleveland's Harold Ramirez hit a solo shot in the ninth to cap the scoring.
--Field Level Media