SEATTLE (AP) — Emerson Hancock pitched six hitless innings for the Seattle Mariners in his season debut Sunday against the Cleveland Guardians before being removed from the game by manager Dan Wilson.
Guardians rookie Chase DeLauter lined a clean single to right field leading off the seventh against reliever Cooper Criswell to break up Seattle’s bid for a combined no-hitter.
The only baserunners the 26-year-old Hancock allowed came when he walked José Ramírez in the first inning and hit CJ Kayfus with a fastball in the sixth. The sixth overall pick in the 2020 amateur draft needed 97 pitches, 62 strikes, to get through six scoreless innings on a chilly late afternoon in the Pacific Northwest.
Hancock, who cracked Seattle’s starting rotation coming out of spring training in large part because of , set a career high with nine strikeouts. No batted ball against him left the infield.
Seattle led 7-0 after six innings. Leo Rivas hit an RBI single in the fourth and Brendan Donovan connected for a three-run homer. Randy Arozarena added an RBI double in the fifth and Luke Raley had a run-scoring single. Cal Raleigh drove in Donovan with a ground-rule double in the sixth.
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