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Fanfare for the Third Planet by Richard L. Saucedo

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Fanfare

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Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 79F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph..

Seattle Mariners closer Edwin Diaz, right and catcher Mike Zunino celebrate after the Mariners defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-3 during a baseball game Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, in Phoenix. Diaz earned the save, his 49th this season, setting a new single-season team record, besting Fernando Rodney's 48 in 2014. (Rick Scuteri, Associated Press)

Little fanfare as Diaz sets Mariners record in victory over Diamondbacks

Closer earns his 49th save, setting a new Seattle single-season mark

Seattle Mariners closer Edwin Diaz, right and catcher Mike Zunino celebrate after the Mariners defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-3 during a baseball game Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, in Phoenix. Diaz earned the save, his 49th this season, setting a new single-season team record, besting Fernando Rodney's 48 in 2014. (Rick Scuteri, Associated Press)

PHOENIX — There was no celebration, not even a fist pump, just a hug with Mike Zunino after an easy strikeout of Daniel Descalso on a biting slider at 91 mph. The lack of drama in the inning and the inevitability of the achievement made it basically a foregone conclusion.

Edwin Diaz was going to set the Mariners’ season record for saves. It was just a matter of when.

It came Friday night at Chase Field. Diaz worked an easy 1-2-3 ninth inning to secure the Mariners’ 6-3 win over the Diamondbacks. With the save, he moved past Fernando Rodney, who held the previous record of 48 set in 2014.

“It was just a normal game for me,” Diaz said. “I set the record, but we had to win the game. I wasn’t thinking about the record. I didn’t want to think about it when I came to the mound. I just wanted to do my job and get the quick outs.”

There wasn’t even the traditional beer shower in the clubhouse postgame to celebrate Diaz’s achievement.

“Keep it quiet,” he said, looking around and smiling. “I don’t want the beer shower.”

To Diaz, the next save will be more important. Besides being the nice round number of 50, he will also win a bet with manager Scott Servais, who agreed to get the same haircut as Diaz if he reached 50 saves. During the postgame handshakes, Diaz made sure to let Servais know that he was just one save away.

“I got the bet,” he said. “When we get to 50, I get to see the haircut.”

Diaz said he will fly his barber into San Diego to give Servais the haircut if he were to notch that 50th save during this series.

“We’ll see what happens,” Diaz said. “But he better be ready to get the haircut.”

Beyond the frivolities of a clubhouse wager, Diaz leads the majors in saves. The next closest is Craig Kimbrel with 37. Diaz has struck out 46 percent of the batters he’s faced this season, and the Mariners are 58-0 when he enters with a lead. He’s blown just four saves all season.

“It’s a phenomenal season he’s had,” Servais said. “He’s done it a number of different ways. Some nights it’s the slider. Some nights it’s the fastball. Recently, the fastball has been outstanding. He’s getting ahead in the count, and he’s got both weapons to go to later in the count. It’s really nice to hand the ball to him. He’s been very consistent.”

Diaz’s fastball was touching 99 mph in the outing. Despite all the usage this season, he looked strong after not throwing in four days.

“We haven’t used him a lot recently,” Servais admitted. “Hopefully we can use him three days in a row. I like doing that because it means we are in a really good spot.”

The Mariners haven’t been in that spot to use Diaz much lately because of poor outings from their starting pitchers. Erasmo Ramirez provided a welcome change from that lack of success.

pitching six innings and giving up three runs — only one earned — on six hits with a walk and six strikeouts to get his first win of the season. Fanfare , pitching six innings and giving up three runs — only one earned — on six hits with a walk and six strikeouts to get his first win of the season.

“He’s sinking the ball and he’s got his cutter and the changeup has been very good,” Servais said. “He made some really good pitches to the middle of their lineup, which has been very hot.”

Dee Gordon manufactured the Mariners’ first run. After hitting a leadoff double to start the third inning off Arizona starter Zack Godley, Gordon noticed that catcher Alex Avila was making looping tosses back to the mound after each pitch. Godley also kept his head down while getting back to the rubber.

So Gordon timed out his lead and took off for third base on a throw back to the mound. The play stunned Godley, who caught the ball and fired awkwardly to third base, but nowhere near third baseman Eduardo Escobar. The throwing error allowed Gordon to race home for a 1-0 lead.

It was the start of a four-run inning for Seattle. Mitch Haniger singled to center — his second of three hits on the night — while Robinson Cano, Jean Segura and Denard Span all followed with hits to lead to two more runs. Kyle Seager added a sacrifice fly to right to score Segura that made it 4-0.

The Mariners pushed the lead to 5-0 in the fifth inning when Haniger smashed his 21st homer of the season, sending a solo shot into deep left field off Godley.

PHOENIX — With a pain-free and issue-free bullpen session Friday afternoon at Chase Field, the Mariners can now start planning to activate left-hander pitcher James Paxton from the disabled list.

Paxton suffered a severe left-forearm contusion in the first inning of his start Aug. 14 when he was struck by a 96 mph line drive off the bat of Jed Lowrie. Paxton started playing catch last week and then moved to the mound Friday — a major step in his progression.

“It was all great,” said Mariners pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre. “He’s not even putting any thought into it when he was on the mound. He was just throwing. To be honest, it was — and I told him this — it was probably as good of a bullpen I’ve seen from him in a long time. We got him cleaned up with his delivery going down the mound. His hand was in a good position. He was letting it go. He was really free and easy. He threw all of his pitches — 25 high-intensity pitches.”

Paxton is scheduled to throw another bullpen in a few days.

“Then we’ll move forward with getting him in a game, very high intensity. He was working quick Fanfare , he would kind of tiptoe around his bullpens. But today he got after it, very high intensity. He was working quick, which is a sign that he’s not thinking about anything.”

The Mariners didn’t want to push Paxton back too quickly and have him pitch in National League games.

“We think its better to keep him in the American League,” manager Scott Servais said. “There’s a lot of things that can happen, and we want James to focus on pitching.”

But the bullpen wasn’t just about Paxton’s forearm and health. There was another purpose.

“Since before the All-Star break and with his back stuff, trying to compensate for the back thing.” Fanfare ,” Stottlemyre said. “We wanted to make sure his lines and his hand positions were right. But we found he was down a little lower, trying to compensate for the back thing.”

With the shuffling in the rotation due to the injury to Paxton, the need to give Marco Gonzales a few days of extra rest and Mike Leake’s recent bout with illness, the Mariners finally settled on a rotation going forward. Servais announced that Wade LeBlanc will start Saturday and Leake will start Sunday. Felix Hernandez is scheduled to start Tuesday in San Diego.