MILWAUKEE — The beauty of baseball is the repetition. One day after another. One day rarely same as the other. It makes forgetting what happened the day before — especially if it was a very bad and not an enjoyable day at the park — a vital skill for players to possess.

The Mariners believed when they arrived at American Family Field on Wednesday that they could forget what happened 24 hours earlier. That a 22-0 loss could be compartmentalized as a freak, one-off occurrence on a night that tumbled wildly out of control until it landed in the MLB record books.

In this case, they were proven to be correct. What took place in the opening game against the best team in baseball didn’t linger into the second night. A lineup that seemed resolute of responding — at least in the early innings — did just that.

The result was a 7-5 Mariners victory over the Brewers, just their fifth in the last 14 games and with every win at this point keeping the M’s relevant in the mediocre American League.

If embarrassment was the overwhelming feeling coming out of Tuesday’s blowout, then a certain resolve should be acknowledged for the way the M’s jumped on Brewers starter Dustin May over the first two innings and allowed Logan Gilbert some cushion against Milwaukee’s challenging lineup.

Seranthony Domínguez made things dicey by giving up two runs in the eighth inning, but Andrés Muñoz picked up his 100th career save with the Mariners with a perfect ninth inning.

The M’s scored four in the first inning, sent nine batters to the plate and put 36 pitches on May. He was at 61 pitches and out of the game after giving up three more runs in the second inning.

And the M’s did it, oddly, without the benefit of the home run. It was singles, walks and bloops mixed with a couple of screamers off the bat that gave the M’s a 7-0 lead after just nine outs.

The four-spot in the first inning came thanks a two-run double by Dominic Canzone, two-out walks by Cole Young and Cal Raleigh, and a two-run bloop single from Taylor Ward playing in his first game in a week. Ward’s hit left the bat at just 73.7 mph, but it fluttered its way into the outfield grass in maybe his most important swing since his acquisition at the trade deadline.

The last time the M’s score four times in the first inning was nearly a calendar year ago — Aug. 29, 2025 at Cleveland.

The second inning was almost a repeat of the first. The M’s loaded the bases with no outs and cashed in on Julio Rodríguez’s sacrifice fly that fell a few feet shy of a grand slam and Josh Naylor’s two-run single.

From there, things dried up pretty quickly for the offense no longer facing the batting practice that May was throwing. Naylor’s two singles and Brock Rodden’s triple was all the M’s got at the plate over the final seven innings. But the early eruption was enough.

Gilbert was challenged to work into the sixth inning, but he was able to keep the Brewers from stringing together any rallies. Joey Ortiz got Gilbert for a two-run homer in the second inning and the Brewers did their part in elevating his pitch count.

Gilbert finally hit empty in the sixth inning, issuing consecutive 3-2 walks to William Contreras and Christian Yelich. He allowed four hits and struck out five, but he also tied a season-high with four walks.

For the most part, the bullpen did it’s part. Eduard Bazardo allowed only one run after the Brewers had the bases loaded with no outs in the sixth. In the seventh, a throwing error by Rodden put runners at second and third with two outs, but José A. Ferrer whipped three fastballs past Christian Yelich to end the inning. Maybe that should have been the matchup on Tuesday night when Bryce Miller was left in and Yelich’s three-run homer started Milwaukee’s avalanche of runs.

Domínguez allowed two runs in just four batters faced in the eighth, but Gabe Speier cleaned up the mess, getting Brice Turang on a groundout to end the inning.

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