DETROIT — J.P. Crawford, Eugenio Suarez and Cal Raleigh each belted a home run, sending the Seattle Mariners to an 8-4 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday and a 2-1 lead in the American League Division Series.
The Mariners can clinch the best-of-five series and their first trip to the AL Championship Series since 2001 with a win in Game 4 on Wednesday in Detroit.
Following a nearly three-hour rain delay before the first pitch, Seattle right-hander Logan Gilbert (1-0) struck out seven and allowed one run over six innings in his second career postseason start. He gave up four hits and didn’t issue a walk.
“It was vintage Logan,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “He attacked the zone. He got into good counts, and he let the split and the slider do his work for him and kept him in stride. …
“And to get that … on the road in a big game tonight after a long rain delay, you can’t discredit that either. Able to come out and throw an outing like that after waiting a couple of hours is another feather in his cap. So he answered the call tonight, no question about it, and it was what we needed, for sure.”
Relievers Matt Brash, Eduard Bazardo, Caleb Ferguson and Andres Munoz closed out the victory.
The Tigers have dropped eight straight games at home and have not won in Detroit since Sept. 6 against the Chicago White Sox.
The Mariners jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Victor Robles, who doubled, went to third on J.P. Crawford’s single, and he scored when the throw from left fielder Riley Greene got away from catcher Dillon Dingler. Randy Arozarena then singled to center to bring home Crawford.
Seattle added a pair of runs in the fourth inning. Suarez hit his first home run of the postseason to center field off Detroit starter Jack Flaherty (0-1). With two on and two outs, Cal Raleigh singled up the middle against Tommy Kahnle to send Dominic Canzone home from second.
Flaherty, who was making his 11th career playoff start, allowed four runs (three earned) on four hits over 3 1/3 innings. He struck out six and walked three.
Dingler scored to cut the deficit to 4-1 in the fifth inning when Kerry Carpenter grounded into a forceout.
Crawford pushed the margin to 5-1 in the sixth with his homer to right field off reliever Brant Hurter. He later flied out to left field in the eighth inning to score Luke Raley.
Raleigh upped the lead to 8-1 in the ninth inning with his two-run shot to center off Brenan Hanifee that scored Arozarena.
Detroit mounted a late rally on Spencer Torkelson’s double that brought home Jake Rogers and Jahmai Jones, and Andy Ibanez’s single that scored Torkelson.
“Well, we’re not going to quit,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “You know, we had two games where we pitched tremendously well, and we had a lot of parts of this game where we pitched tremendously well. …
“They do hit homers when you make mistakes, but we’re going to play the rest of this series out and see if we can answer the challenge of getting through this lineup and putting up more runs.”
–Bob Tripi, Field Level Media
