An RBI single by Julio Rodriguez in the seventh inning on Wednesday afternoon, lifted the Seattle Mariners past the Boston Red Sox 6-3 at T-Mobile Park in the rubber game of a three game series in the Pacific Northwest.
Boston (57-51) had built a 3-0 lead on a two-run homerun by Jarren Duran in the second inning and an RBI single by Masataka Yoshida in the fifth, before Seattle rallied back. After five shutout frames by Kutter Crawford on the mound, John Schreiber came on to pitch in the sixth. The Mariners cut the deficit to 3-2 when Eugenio Suarez doubled with one out, and Cal Raleigh followed with a two-run homer to rightfield. After a walk and a single to start the bottom of the seventh inning, and another Red Sox pitching change, Cade Marlowe tied it with an RBI single off Richard Bleier. Bleier then struckout J.P. Crawford swinging, before Rodriguez provided the game winner with a single to left to score Tom Murphy. The M’s added two more that ended the scoring on the day on a Suarez RBI single, and then Rodriguez scored from third base when Boston catcher Connor Wong threw down to second base trying to get Suarez stealing.
No Boston hitters had more than one hit in the loss. Justin Turner didn’t play for a second straight game after suffering an injury to his heel running to first base on Monday night. Schreiber (1-1) was tagged with the pitching defeat. Crawford didn’t allow any runs on four hits with one walk and five strikeouts in his 5.0 inning no-decision. Suarez and Murphy had three hits each for Seattle (56-52). Matt Brash (7-3) won in relief of starter Logan Gilbert. Andres Munoz picked up his third save. The Red Sox went 2-4 on the six game road trip that had them in San Francisco and Seattle. Boston now returns home to host the Toronto Blue Jays for a key three game series involving the battle for the American League wildcard beginning Friday night at 7:10 at Fenway Park. Lefthander James Paxton (6-2, 3.34 ERA) is expected to toe the rubber for the hosts in the opener, while the Toronto starter is yet to be announced. The Red Sox are 7-0 vs. the Blue Jays so far this season.
Story by Chris Lessner
