Aaron Harang entered last night's game with an 0-3 record and an 11.37 ERA so a lot of Mariners fans didnt have too much confidence in his pitching abilities. The first inning was impressive though as Harang got the Orioles 1-2-3. The Mariners also backed up Harang in the bottom of the first inning, with 2 outs Kendrys Morales was able to land a single in center field as Adam Jones couldn't make the catch. Following Morales's single Mike Morse drew a walk and Jason Bay ripped a double down the left field line and scored Morales and the Mariners took the early 1-0 lead to help out Harang. Harang had another easy 1-2-3 inning in the second and the M's followed his easy inning by scoring two more runs in the bottom have of the second. The bottom half of the second began with Jesus Montero legging out his first major league double, thanks to Adam Jones's bubble blowing mistake. Michael Saunders drove in Montero with a single to right and the lead went up to 2-0 in the Mariners favor. Saunders then stole second base for his fourth base of the year, Morales then drove in Saunders and the M's lead was now 3-0.
Harang kept up his impressive pitching performance lowered his ERA by 3 runs over the next 2 innings of shutout baseball. In the bottom of the fourth Mike Morse took Wei-Yin Chen deep for his 9th homerun of the season since Saunders lead off the inning off with a single when Morse hit his homer the M's took the 5-0 lead. In top of the sixth the Orioles finally got to Harang, with two out Manny Machado doubled, following Machado's double Nick Markakis singled home Machado and the O's got their first run on the board. Adam Jones who was having a tough night doubled to right field scoring Markakis, Harang was finally able to get out of the inning after striking out Chris Davis to end the inning.
The Mariners helped out Harang one more time as in the bottom half of the inning Saunders and Seager both lead off with singles and Morales drove in both runners and the lead was now 7-2. Jason Bay gave the M's one more run with a sacrifice fly that scored Morales and gave the M's the 8-2 lead.
The M's bullpen took care of the Orioles for the rest of the game. Carter Capps went one and two innings but did give up a run on Manny Machado's solo homerun. After Capps gave up back to back singles after Machado's homer Eric Wedge brought in Charile Furbush and he did the job by getting Chris Davis to go down swinging on strikes. Tom Wilhelmsen was called onto close out the ninth in a non save situation. Wilhelmsen got the Orioles 1-2-3 and the Mariners closed out the homestand at 5-2.
NOTES: Dustin Ackley ended his 10 game winning streak. Harang lowered his ERA by 3 runs during his performance. Jason Bay extended his hitting streak to 6 games, during that stretch he has raised his average from .184 to .276.
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