Gonzales looks to keep streak alive at Mariners visit Brewers

Maybe the Seattle Mariners should have saved "Turn Back the Clock Day" for their trip to Milwaukee.

The Mariners wore the uniforms of the 1969 Seattle Pilots on Saturday. That team spent only one season in Seattle before moving to Milwaukee to become the Brewers.

The Mariners will make that same trip this week, starting a three-game interleague series Tuesday in Milwaukee.

Left-hander Marco Gonzales (8-6, 4.38 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Mariners against Brewers right-hander Zach Davies (7-1, 3.06).

Gonzales is 3-0 with a 2.33 ERA in his past three starts following a six-game losing streak.

In his last start, he beat Kansas City by allowing two runs on six hits in 6 2/3 innings, with one walk and five strikeouts.

"That's Marco Gonzales," Mariners manager Scott Servais said. "We saw it for a long time last year. He had a little bumpy road there in May and was struggling with a few things, but he's cleaned it up. Very aggressive again, pitching both sides of the plate, and we're seeing him pitch top of the zone a little more, which I think is helping, so the hitters don't just have one area of the strike zone to lock in on."

Gonzales said the key to his recent streak is that he's gotten back to using all four of his pitches.

"It's just been a process of adapting and adjusting my game plan," Gonzales told MLB.com. "That's the pitcher I want to be. I don't want to show the same guy (the same thing) twice. I think something that's overlooked with me is my ability to adapt. Hopefully, the past couple starts have shown I can bring a different thing every game."

Gonzales is 1-0 with a 9.53 ERA in two career appearances against the Brewers, including one start.

Davies is coming off his worst start of the season, in which he lasted just 2 2/3 innings and allowed five runs on nine hits at San Diego although he didn't get a decision. He suffered his only loss of 2019 in his previous start at San Francisco. He's never faced the Mariners.

The Brewers have won two in a row following a five-game losing streak. They beat Cincinnati 7-5 on Sunday, with Travis Shaw cranking a 465-foot home run after Milwaukee's first six batters of the game had struck out against Anthony DeSclafani.

Brewers manager Craig Counsell was asked if that was the turning point in the game.

"Because we hadn't made contact yet, yeah," Counsell with a smile. "Look, when a guy punches out the first six hitters, (the home run) changes everything. It flips it pretty fast from, 'Man, this is going to be a tough day,' to, 'There's something there.'"

Added Shaw to MLB.com: "Yeah, we've struggled. Every team is going to struggle. There is no panic in this room. I'm sure there was panic outside the room, but to think we weren't going to go through a stretch like that is kind of absurd in this long of a season. But we rebounded well these last two games."

The Mariners are coming off a 13-3 victory at home against Baltimore in which shortstop J.P. Crawford went 4-for-4 with a home run and four RBIs. Seattle took three of four games in the series.

--Field Level Media