Cal Raleigh homered on the first pitch of the seventh inning Saturday night to snap a tie and the Seattle Mariners defeated the host San Diego Padres 4-1.
Raleigh victimized reliever Adrian Morejon (1-2) for his 15th homer of the year, tying the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber for second in MLB behind the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani (16). Raleigh also homered in the Mariners’ 5-1 win over the Padres on Friday.
Saturday’s homer helped make a winner of Gabe Speier (2-0), who pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of starter Emerson Hancock.
Seattle’s bullpen worked 4 1/3 scoreless innings, getting a four-out save from closer Andres Munoz. He induced a grounder from Gavin Sheets to end the eighth with the potential tying run at second base, then took care of the ninth for his 14th save in 16 chances.
San Diego outhit the Mariners 8-6 but failed to come up with timely hits. The Padres went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, stranding eight runners. Their most critical failure came in the fifth, when they loaded the bases with one out on a Jason Heyward single, Fernando Tatis Jr.’s double and a walk to Luis Arraez.
But Hancock fanned Manny Machado with a 96 mph fastball on his last pitch, followed by Speier striking out Jackson Merrill to end the threat.
Hancock permitted six hits, one run and one walk over 4 2/3 innings with three strikeouts, while San Diego starter Nick Pivetta gave up just two hits and a run in six innings. He walked one and whiffed seven.
Sheets gave the Padres a short-lived 1-0 lead in the fourth when he drilled a Hancock changeup an estimated 401 feet to right-center for his sixth homer of the year. However, Rowdy Tellez equalized to start the fifth with his eighth long ball of the season.
Seattle tacked on two runs in the ninth against Alek Jacob. Raleigh walked, Randy Arozarena beat out an infield hit and Donovan Solano walked to set up Dylan Moore’s two-run single to left.
It was the Mariners’ 11th win in their last 14 meetings with the Padres.
–Field Level Media
