Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez and Luke Raley each homered Thursday afternoon to help the visiting Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics 6-4 and earn a split of the teams’ four-game series.
Raleigh added a sacrifice fly, Raley had three hits and Victor Robles contributed two hits and scored twice for Seattle (71-70), which snapped a four-game skid with Wednesday’s 16-3 win.
Mariners right-hander Bryan Woo (7-2) allowed two runs on eight hits in five innings, striking out six without a walk.
Oakland right-hander Joey Estes (6-7) surrendered four runs on six hits in four innings. He struck out three and did not walk a batter.
Brent Rooker hit his 34th and 35th home runs of the season and Seth Brown had two hits and an RBI for the Athletics (61-80).
Robles was hit by a pitch to lead off the game, stole second and went to third when the catcher’s throw went into center field. Rodriguez grounded out to first, but Raleigh turned on a fastball and pulled it over the fence in right for a two-run homer and a 2-0 lead.
It was the 88th home run of Raleigh’s career, tying him with Rudy York for second-most among major league catchers in their first four seasons. Mike Piazza has the most with 92.
Rodriguez homered on the first pitch of the third inning, a 448-foot shot to left, extending the lead to 3-0.
Oakland loaded the bases with one out in the third on singles by Jacob Wilson, Lawrence Butler and JJ Bleday. Brown lined a sacrifice fly to center to trim the lead to 3-1.
Robles beat out a routine grounder to shortstop to start the fifth for Seattle. Rodriguez then reached on a fielding error by third baseman Max Schuemann, putting runners on the corners and ending Estes’ day.
Raleigh followed with a sacrifice fly off reliever T.J. McFarland to make it 4-1.
In the bottom of the fifth, Rooker lifted a low slider over the fence in left to cut it to 4-2.
The Mariners went up 6-2 in the ninth on Raley’s two-run shot to center. Those runs proved pivotal, as Rooker blasted a two-run homer off Andres Munoz in the bottom half of the inning to pull the A’s within 6-4.
–Field Level Media
