Cal Raleigh hit his major league-leading 44th home run, and Julio Rodríguez powered two long balls as the Seattle Mariners topped the Tampa Bay Rays 7-4 on Saturday night.
The victory, which followed a pregame ceremony retiring Ichiro Suzuki’s No. 51 jersey, extended Seattle’s win streak to six games — the longest active streak in the American League — and moved the Mariners within half a game of the Houston Astros for the top spot in the AL West.
Raleigh, who hit the go-ahead home run in the eighth inning on Friday, delivered a three-run blast in the third inning to give the Mariners a commanding 5-1 lead.
Rodríguez, who already had a two-run homer in the first, followed Raleigh’s shot with his own home run off Rays starter Joe Boyle (1-2), who was pulled after just 3 1/3 innings.
Rodríguez’s two-homer performance brought his season total to 23. His first blast traveled 436 feet.
The Mariners extended their lead in the sixth when Cole Young scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-4.
On the mound, Logan Evans (6-4) pitched 5 1/3 solid innings, allowing three runs.
Four Mariners relievers finished off the game, with Andrés Muñoz closing out the ninth for his 27th save of the season.
Tampa Bay made a push late with Brandon Lowe’s solo shot in the first and Junior Caminero’s three-run blast in the sixth, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Seattle’s offensive barrage.
Key moments from the game included Raleigh’s homer in the third, which extended the Mariners’ lead to four runs, and J.P. Crawford’s remarkable 17-pitch at-bat in the sixth.
Crawford fouled off 12 pitches before eventually popping out to shortstop. The lengthy at-bat, which tied for the longest by a Mariners player since pitch tracking began in 1988, earned him a standing ovation from the home crowd.
The Mariners will aim for a sweep in Sunday’s series finale, with RHP Bryan Woo (9-6, 3.02 ERA) set to face Tampa Bay’s Adrian Houser (6-3, 2.54 ERA).
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