Seattle Mariners at Chicago Cubs

· Major League Baseball

Seattle Mariners

4-8, 2-3 Away

Final
9 - 14

Chicago Cubs

6-4, 5-3 Home

Velázquez hits grand slam as Cubs rally past Mariners 14-9

Dansby Swanson went 4 for 4 and Trey Mancini homered as the Cubs won for the fifth time in six games. Mancini had three RBI, and Nico Hoerner had two hits and drove in two runs.

Velázquez had three hits and scored three times in his first start since he was recalled from Triple-A Iowa on Monday.

“Nelson had phenomenal at-bats” Chicago manager David Ross said. “That's as good as I've seen him. You can tell his game has elevated with the experience in games last year and the offseason work he put in and swinging the bat well down at Iowa.”

Swanson posted his fifth career four-hit game before departing in the sixth with tightness on his left side. He is batting .400 (16 for 40) in his first 10 games with his new team.

Swanson said he cramped up after getting up at 4 a.m. and spending the day with his wife, U.S. soccer star Mallory Swanson, who underwent surgery on Tuesday for a knee injury after she got hurt Saturday in a game against Ireland.

“It's been a long few days and today was an exceptionally long day as well,” Swanson said. “Realistically, I just felt like my body's just kind of like done. The night was over for me, pretty simple.”

Eugenio Suárez and Jarred Kelenic homered for Seattle in its third consecutive loss. Suárez drove in three runs, and Ty France finished with three hits and two RBI.

The wind was blowing out at Wrigley Field on a warm night.

“We knew that conditions were going to be very favorable for the offensive side,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. "I thought early in the game our at-bats were great.

“We jumped all over their starter. We were in a really good spot.”

The Mariners made the most of errors by Swanson and Mancini in the second, scoring five unearned runs on their way to a 7-0 lead. It was each player's first error with Chicago.

But the Cubs responded in the third, sending 13 men to the plate. Mancini hit a two-run shot and Eric Hosmer added an RBI single. Velázquez then hit a drive to left-center against Chris Flexen, making it 8-7 and sending the crowd of 30,081 into a frenzy.

“It was so pure,” Swanson said. “The energy was just amazing. As soon as Nellie hit that ball, I hadn’t really felt too many things like than in my career.”

Flexen (0-2), making his second start in place of the injured Robbie Ray, departed after Velázquez's homer. He was tagged for 10 hits and walked two.

Chicago starter Hayden Wesneski recorded just four outs. He was charged with seven runs, two earned, and five hits.

Michael Rucker (1-0) pitched 2 2/3 innings of one-run ball for the win.

Kelenic connected for a solo shot in the fourth, but Swanson and Mancini each hit an RBI single in the fifth and the Cubs tacked on three more in the sixth.

SWANSON STATS

Swanson, who signed a $177 million, seven-year contract with Chicago in free agency, won the Gold Glove last season with Atlanta. He made just eight errors on 592 chances last year for a .986 fielding percentage.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Mariners: Servais said Ray (left flexor strain), the 2021 AL Cy Young Award winner with Toronto, is getting through upper-body workouts, but not yet throwing. Ray got hurt in his first game this season on March 31. ... Servais said SS Dylan Moore (left oblique strain) probably will be sent on a rehab assignment to Triple-A Tacoma next week.

Cubs: RF Seiya Suzuki (left oblique) and LHP Brendan Hughes (left knee inflammation) continued their rehab assignments with Triple-A Iowa on Tuesday. President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer expects Suzuki to rejoin the Cubs on their upcoming six-game West Coast trip that starts Friday. ... RHP Kyle Hendricks (shoulder strain) was set to throw two innings of live batting practice at the team’s Arizona training facility on Wednesday. ... RHP Codi Heuer (Tommy John surgery) tossed an inning of batting practice on Tuesday.

Mariners RHP Logan Gilbert (0-1, 3.60 ERA) faces Cubs RHP Marcus Stroman (2-0, 0.00 ERA) in the series finale on Wednesday.

How can I watch Seattle Mariners vs. Chicago Cubs?

TV Channel: Mariners at Cubs 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.tv.
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Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Wong grounded out to third.
	9th Inning	Kelenic grounded out to second.
	9th Inning	Hernández grounded out to shortstop, Hernández out at first.
	8th Inning	Velázquez grounded out to third.
	8th Inning	Gomes struck out swinging.
	8th Inning	Hosmer grounded out to pitcher, Hosmer out at first.

Statistics

SEA		CHC
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
0	Hit By Pitch	1
16	Ground Balls	19
8	Strikeouts	4
9	Runs Batted In	14
0	Sacrifice Hit	0
11	Hits	18
0	Stolen Bases	1
4	Walks	4
0	Catcher Interference	0
9	Runs	14
0	Ground Into Double Play	1
1	Sacrifice Flies	0
38	At Bats	40
2	Home Runs	2
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	1
15	Runners Left On Base	19
0	Triples	0
0	Game Winning RBIs	1
0	Intentional Walks	0
3	Doubles	3
15	Fly Balls	17
0	Caught Stealing	1
168	Pitches	181
0	Games Started	0
0	Pinch At Bats	0
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
0	Is Qualified In Steals	1
20	Total Bases	27
43	Plate Appearances	45
324.0	Projected Home Runs	324.0
5	Extra Base Hits	5
7.2	Runs Created	11.7
.289	Batting Average	.450
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.526	Slugging Percentage	.675
.342	Secondary Average	.325
.349	On Base Percentage	.511
.875	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	1.186
1.1	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	1.1
7.0	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	13.1
59.0	Batter Rating	87.0
19.0	At Bats Per Home Run	20.0
0.00	Stolen Base Percentage	0.50
3.91	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	4.02
.237	Isolated Power	.225
0.50	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	1.00
.093	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.089
.053	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	-.125
18.0	Runs Produced	28.0
1.0	Runs Ratio	1.0
0.6	Patience Ratio	0.7
0.3	Balls In Play Average	0.5
100.5	MLB Rating	126.8
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0