Mariners manager Scott Servais from laiyongcai92's blog

HOUSTON (AP) — loves how his team is hitting lately. He only wishes this offensive outburst had come earlier in the season.Robinson Cano drove in three runs Glenn Robinson Jersey , three players homered and seven pitchers combined for a five-hitter in Seattle’s 9-0 rout of the Houston Astros on Wednesday night.“The frustrating thing going through the struggles we did in August and early September was you know it’s in there,” Servais said. “It wasn’t consistently there and showing up, and the lineup just wasn’t flowing. Just up and down the lineup, the quality of at-bats have been there this road trip.”The Mariners took two of three in this series from Houston, which saw its AL West lead over the Oakland Athletics shrink to four games when the A’s beat the Angels 10-0.Seattle has outscored its opponents 35-19 in the last seven games, winning five.Rookie Matt Festa made his first career start on a bullpen day for the Mariners and threw a perfect first inning before Casey Lawrence (1-0) took over and allowed one hit in three innings. Adam Warren, Shawn Armstrong, Zach Duke, Justin Grimm and Roenis Elias pitched an inning each to close it out.“Obviously, to throw nine zeroes up there, it’s hard to do certainly against this team in this ballpark,” Servais said. “But our guys were really sharp tonight.”The Mariners jumped on Dallas Keuchel (11-11) immediately with Mitch Haniger hitting a leadoff single before a double by Jean Segura. A single by Cano came next to make it 1-0, and Keuchel walked Ryon Healy with one out. A wild pitch allowed Segura to score and Cano and Healy to move up a base.Kyle Seager then scorched a line drive that hit Keuchel on the side of the head and sailed into right field to score Cano and make it 3-0. Keuchel didn’t show any outward signs of injury. He was checked on by manager A.J. Hinch and the team trainer for a couple of minutes before throwing some warmup pitches and remaining in the game.He got on track after that, retiring the next 12 batters before walking Haniger with one out in the fifth inning. Cano hit an RBI double with two outs and he reached third on the throw. Nelson Cruz drove him in with a single.Keuchel yielded six hits and five runs in five innings for his first loss since Aug. 18.“They came out and ambushed Dallas,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “Within the first five pitches, we were in a mess and never really recovered from it. They continued to tack on, and we didn’t have an answer. … You just have to chalk it up to a bad night.”Brad Peacock took over to start the sixth inning and was greeted by Seager’s homer, which landed in the seats in right field.Dean Deetz came in for the seventh, and he also allowed a home run to the first batter he faced when Haniger sent one to the Crawford Boxes in left field.Guillermo Heredia hit a solo shot off Cionel Perez in the eighth.TRAINER’S ROOMMariners: LHP James Paxton, who is recovering from the flu and pneumonia, will throw his second bullpen session on Friday and hopes to return to the rotation after that. He said he was “pretty gassed” after throwing 40 pitches in his first bullpen session on Tuesday http://www.brewersfanproshop.com/authentic-manny-pina-jersey , but believes he’ll feel better by Friday. “If I get to the point where I have something left in the tank after the bullpen, then I’ll get back in a game,” he said. … RHP Felix Hernandez (hamstring) will rejoin the team at Texas and is scheduled to throw a bullpen session on Friday.SCARY MOMENTSeager was shaken up after hitting Keuchel in the head in the first inning. His feeling was certainly understandable considering his history. In 2016 Seager hit a line drive that struck Angels pitcher Matt Shoemaker and forced him to undergo emergency brain surgery. Shoemaker has recovered, but Wednesday’s incident with Keuchel brought back those memories.“It was scary,” he said. “Nobody likes that’s stuff. It makes you sick to your stomach. Thankfully he’s all right.”Keuchel said he was fine after the game and added that he feels lucky to have escaped injury.“I like to think that I’m tough, but even myself, I was very fortunate to not have anything seriously wrong afterward,” he said. “I don’t think I got any glove on it.”UP NEXTMariners: Seattle is off Thursday before Erasmo Ramirez (2-3, 5.65 ERA) starts in the opener of a three-game series at Texas. Ramirez allowed four hits and four runs in four innings in his last start but did not factor in the decision in a 6-5 win over the Angels.Astros: Houston is also off Thursday before beginning a series with the Angels with Gerrit Cole (14-5, 2.88) on the mound. Cole’s start was pushed back from Tuesday to give the right-hander, who has thrown 187 1/3 innings this season, some extra rest. MILWAUKEE (AP) — When Brewers slugger Christian Yelich takes the field against the Los Angeles Dodgers, he’ll have one group of Milwaukee fans rooting especially loud for his success: Serbian-Americans.The 26-year-old MVP candidate’s banner year has earned him plenty of new fans, including Serbians who are just now becoming aware of his heritage. Yelich’s paternal grandfather was Serbian.“Everybody is seriously super-stoked and really happy,” said Sinisa Torbica, 50, whose parents immigrated to Milwaukee from Serbia in the 1960s.Torbica, who makes a living as a translator, said he long thought Yelich might be of Serbian descent but wasn’t sure because the Americanized spelling differs from the more usual Jelic surname. Torbica said it was “fricking awesome” when a friend told him about Yelich’s ancestry last year. His own friends, he said, feel the same.“They’re just kind of like awestruck Cecil Cooper Jersey ,” Torbica said. “They’re like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe it. He’s Serbian, are you kidding me? MVP?’ It’s unbelievable.”Yelich said he has never visited Serbia or fully researched his heritage, but he feels “pride in it.”“Any time you can have an impact on anybody’s life in a positive direction, to bring happiness to the community or a certain group of people, you don’t take that lightly as a team, as a player,” he said.The Brewers acquired Yelich from the Miami Marlins in a trade this past offseason and he went on to win the National League batting title with a .326 average. He hit 36 home runs and had 110 RBIs, just missing the Triple Crown — a rare feat last accomplished by Miguel Cabrera for Detroit in 2012.Now, Yelich is a frequent topic of conversation among Milwaukee’s small, tight-knit Serbian community that likes cheering for athletes who have a connection to home, said Steve Petrovic, the president of the American Serb Hall on the city’s southwest side. Petrovic said it’s the same adulation Serbians feel for athletes like tennis superstar Novak Djokovic and retired NBA player Vlade Divac.“When you’re within the Serbian community, that kind of stuff is talked about — ‘Did you see Yelich had three hits the other night?'” Petrovic said. “That is very commonplace.”Serbians’ migration to Milwaukee began in the late 1800s, driven by poverty and overpopulation in Eastern Europe, said John Gurda, a Milwaukee historian and author.They settled in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood, near the city’s south side, and largely worked industrial jobs, Gurda said. Another wave of Serbian immigrants began arriving in Milwaukee in the 1980s during the wars in Sarajevo and the Bosnian conflict.The St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral http://www.brewersfanproshop.com/authentic-hernan-perez-jersey , the St. Sava Orthodox School and Serb Hall have become important gathering places for Serbians, who number about 4,000 in the area, according to census data.“I can guarantee you that if you go out to Serb Hall or the school, they know (about Yelich) and they’re proud,” Gurda said.That pride is part of Serbians’ nationalistic streak and their “special draw” toward cheering on their own when they succeed, said Mike Uzelac, 63, former president of Serb Hall.“We try to support each other, and root for each other whether it’s basketball, football, acting, whatever,” he said.Now that more Serbians are learning about Yelich’s heritage, they want to make sure that others know it, too.“Now I’m going to be bringing it up to all my friends,” said Ilija Stojsavljevic, 47, an engineer from the Milwaukee suburb of Cudahy. “I will be bringing that up whenever possible.”