Cal Raleigh hit his major league-leading 45th home run of the season and Josh Naylor also went deep as the Seattle Mariners held on to defeat the visiting Tampa Bay Rays 6-3 Sunday afternoon for their seventh consecutive victory.
Ha-Seong Kim doubled and homered for the Rays, who dropped their third game in a row.
Seattle starter Bryan Woo (10-6) pitched at least six innings for the 23rd straight time to open the season. The right-hander allowed three runs on seven hits, walked one and matched his career-high with nine strikeouts.
Matt Brash worked the ninth for his third save of the season and second of the series.
The Rays’ Adrian Houser (6-4) overcame a shaky start to go five innings. The righty gave up four runs on six hits, walked three and fanned four.
Houser needed 45 pitches to get out of the first inning as the Mariners sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs.
Leadoff hitter Randy Arozarena was grazed by a pitch and Raleigh followed with a drive into the right-field seats, his third straight game with a homer. Raleigh tied Johnny Bench for the second-most homers in a season by a catcher in MLB history, three behind Salvador Perez’s record.
The Mariners weren’t done, as Julio Rodriguez lined a single to left and Naylor walked. The runners advanced on a balk by Houser before Eugenio Suarez grounded a two-run single up the middle. Seattle loaded the bases before Houser got Arozarena to ground out to end the inning.
The Rays scored single runs in the second, third and fourth innings to pull within 4-3.
Josh Lowe doubled to lead off the second and scored on Kim’s one-out double into the left-field corner.
Chandler Simpson led off the third with a triple to left and came home on Yandy Diaz’s groundout.
With two outs in the fourth, Kim lined a solo shot just over the left-field wall.
Naylor went deep to right with two outs in the seventh and Dominic Canzone added a run-scoring single in the eighth as the Mariners capped a 9-1 homestand.
–Field Level Media
