Backup catcher Luis Torrens pitched the 10th inning and earned the win for the Seattle Mariners in a 7-6 victory against the visiting Detroit Tigers in the opening game of a doubleheader on Tuesday afternoon.
The Mariners (88-72) secured the No. 5 seed in the playoffs later Tuesday when the Tampa Bay Rays lost to the Boston Red Sox 6-0 in a rain-shortened game. The Mariners will open a best-of-three wild-card series at Toronto on Friday.
On Tuesday, Mariners manager Scott Servais decided to save his bullpen and summoned Torrens (1-0) in a tie game. Torrens gave up a sacrifice fly to Riley Greene that lifted the Tigers to a 6-5 lead, but Seattle came back with two runs in the bottom of the 10th on an RBI single by Carlos Santana and a game-winning sacrifice fly by Abraham Toro.
Torrens became the first position player (excluding Los Angeles Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani) to earn a win on the mound since Chicago Cubs catcher John Baker beat the Colorado Rockies in a 16-inning game on July 29, 2014. He is the first position player in Mariners history to post a win.
Mitch Haniger and Curt Casali homered and Santana had three hits for the Mariners.
Mariners starter Chris Flexen allowed three runs and five hits in four innings. He struck out two and walked one.
Spencer Torkelson and Victor Reyes each hit a two-run homer for the Tigers (66-94), who had won nine of 10 coming into the game.
Detroit starter Eduardo Rodriguez allowed three runs and six hits in six innings. He fanned seven and walked one.
Tigers reliever Gregory Soto (2-10) started the bottom of the 10th with a one-run lead but took the loss.
Mariners reliever Matthew Festa gave up a leadoff single to Torkelson in the seventh inning before Reyes lifted his third homer of the season over the fence in right for a 5-3 lead.
Ty France hit a hard grounder off the glove of Torkelson at first with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to score Adam Frazier from second and cut the deficit to 5-4.
Two batters later, Eugenio Suarez lined a 2-2 pitch into left to drive in France from second and tie the score 5-5.
Flexen surrendered a leadoff double to Reyes in the third. With one out, Greene doubled to right to drive in Reyes and give Detroit a 1-0 lead.
Casali hit a solo home run in the bottom half of the inning to tie the score 1-1. After J.P. Crawford walked, Rodriguez got the second out of the inning, but Haniger blasted a two-run homer to center to give Seattle a 3-1 lead.
Torkelson answered with a two-run homer in the fourth to tie the score 3-3.
–Field Level Media
