ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It wasn’t quite like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan or some other wrestler making a stunning and unexpected appearance and charge to the ring with entrance blasting.
But when manager Scott Servais walked out of the dugout at Tropicana Field and onto the field while his team was taking batting practice Tuesday afternoon, it caught his team by surprise.
Then the Mariners welcomed back their manager by beating the Tampa Bay Rays 8-4 for their fourth straight win.
Adam Frazier’s double off Josh Fleming (2-2) came during a seven-run fourth inning for the Mariners that was made possible by back-to-back errors from shortstop Wander Franco and first baseman Ji-Man Choi.
AL West-leading Seattle has won nine of 11.
“We had the big seven-run inning tonight, took advantage of a couple of errors on their side, but we got big hits, took advantage of a couple guys in scoring position,” manager Scott Servais said. “It was good to see. I know we’ve got a lot of momentum going.”
After testing positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday in Seattle and missing the last five games due to Major League Baseball protocols, Servais was cleared by a team doctor and took the first morning flight to the Tampa area on Tuesday.
His arrival wasn’t expected as Kristopher Negron handled all the managerial duties pregame, including the media session.
When asked about Servais, Negron replied: “Skip is feeling much better. We’re looking to be a full staff sooner rather than later.”
A raspy-voiced Perry Hill returned to the field in his role as infield coach and strength coach James Clifford was also back with the team. Both were part of a COVID outbreak that had more than a dozen people in the organization test positive.
The only missing member of the staff was third base coach Manny Acta, who is expected to join the team in the coming days. With Acta still out, hitting coach Tony Arnerich served as third-base coach and Negron moved back to first-base coach.
Logan Gilbert (3-0) gave up two hits and three walks while striking out seven and left the game with the Mariners up 8-0 in the sixth inning. The 24-year-old right-hander has given up one earned run in four starts, and it came in the first inning of his first start.
“When things like that happen, you try to capitalize on it, and we’ve done a pretty good job of that so far,” Gilbert said of the early lead he was given. “I think that says a lot about where we are, especially early in the season.”
