Field Level Media
Jun 2, 2018
Mitch Haniger led off the bottom of the 13th inning with a home run as the host Seattle Mariners defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 Friday night at Safeco Field.
Haniger hit a 3-2 pitch from Matt Andriese (1-3) just over the wall in right-center field as the Mariners improved to 6-0 in extra innings and 17-9 in one-run games. It was Haniger's 12th homer of the season.
Left-hander Roenis Elias (1-0) pitched two innings for the victory after being recalled from Triple-A Tacoma earlier in the day.
The Rays rallied from a 3-0 deficit, tying the score with a run in the ninth inning against Mariners closer Edwin Diaz, who leads the majors with 19 saves.
Mike Leake pitched seven strong innings for the Mariners. The right-hander allowed two runs on six hits in seven innings, didn't walk a batter and struck out eight.
Former Rays closer Alex Colome, acquired by Seattle in a four-player trade along with outfielder Denard Span last week, pitched a scoreless eighth for the Mariners.
The only trouble Leake encountered came with two outs in the fifth inning, as Carlos Gomez and Johnny Field hit back-to-back solo homers to left field. It was Gomez's seventh home run of the season and Field's sixth.
Tampa Bay right-hander Sergio Romo made his fifth abbreviated start of the season in the Rays' unique new "bullpenning" strategy of using a reliever to begin the game.
Romo pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings before being replaced by right-hander Austin Pruitt.
Pruitt gave up three runs on seven hits in five innings, with no walks and three strikeouts.
The Mariners opened the scoring in the third inning with a two-out rally.
Jean Segura reached base on an infield single and Kyle Seager grounded a single to the opposite field in left against a defensive shift. Nelson Cruz grounded a two-strike single to right field to score Segura.
Seattle scored twice more in the fourth.
Ben Gamel led off with a triple to left-center field, the ball just eluding diving center fielder Mallex Smith. Ryon Healy grounded a single to center to score Gamel. Guillermo Heredia then hit a liner to right-center that also just eluded a diving Smith. Heredia ended up with a double, with Healy stopping at third. David Freitas grounded out to deep short, with Healy scoring to make it 3-0.
--Field Level Media