Field Level Media
Aug 11, 2019
Tampa Bay's Mike Zunino hit a three-run homer against his former team as the Rays defeated the host Seattle Mariners 5-4 Saturday night.
Kevin Kiermaier and Avisail Garcia also homered for the Rays, who have won 11 of their past 14 games.
Omar Narvaez went deep for the Mariners, who have lost seven of eight after tying their season-high with a six-game winning streak.
Rays starter Charlie Morton (13-4) allowed four runs on nine hits in six innings. He didn't walk a batter and struck out 10. Fellow right-hander Emilio Pagan, another former Mariner, pitched the ninth for his 11th save of the season.
Mariners left-hander Tommy Milone (1-7), who entered in the third after right-hander Matt Wisler pitched two scoreless innings as the opener, lost his sixth straight decision. Milone gave up five runs on six hits in four innings.
The Mariners took a 1-0 lead in the second as Kyle Seager beat the shift with a bunt down the third base line. An out later, Dee Gordon singled to right field and Tim Lopes followed with a sacrifice fly to right.
The Rays took the lead with a four-run fifth. Jesus Aguilar led off by lining a single into right field and Michael Brosseau reached on an infield single. Zunino, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2012 draft by the Mariners who was acquired by the Rays in a trade last offseason, hit a 2-1 pitch deep over the wall in left-center field, his eighth home run of the season. An out later, Kiermaier hit a solo shot to center, his 12th, to make it 4-1.
Seattle's Mallex Smith, acquired as part of the Zunino trade, tripled with one out in the bottom of the fifth. After J.P. Crawford scored Smith on a groundout, Narvaez hit a solo shot to center, his 17th, to pull the Mariners within 4-3.
Both teams scored a run in the sixth.
Garcia hit Milone's first pitch of the inning over the center field fence for his 16th homer, giving the Rays a 5-3 lead.
The Mariners responded in the bottom of the inning as Austin Nola lined a one-out single to right, took second on a wild pitch by Morton and scored on Lopes' two-out liner up the middle.
--Field Level Media