Cal Raleigh hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth inning as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting San Diego Padres 6-1 Wednesday night.
Seattle’s top pitching prospect, Emerson Hancock, pitched five solid innings in his major league debut as the Mariners won their seventh in a row and for the 12th time in their past 14 games to remain two back of Toronto in the race for the American League’s third and final wild-card playoff berth.
The Padres suffered their fourth consecutive defeat.
With the score tied 1-1, Padres reliever Steven Wilson (1-1) walked Julio Rodriguez leading off the bottom of the eighth. With one out, Raleigh hit a 3-2 breaking pitch an estimated 450 feet off the top of the windows of the Hit It Here Cafe on the second deck in right field.
Wilson then hit Teoscar Hernandez on an 0-2 count, drawing a warning from the umpiring crew. Hernandez took second on a groundout and scored on Ty France’s double to right-center. Cade Marlowe greeted reliever Tom Cosgrove with an RBI single to center to make it 5-1. Josh Rojas reached on a fielding error by first baseman Jake Cronenworth and pinch hitter Dylan Moore lined a run-scoring single to center to cap the five-run rally.
Mariners reliever Matt Brash (8-3) pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the victory.
The Padres tallied without the benefit of a hit in the first inning off Hancock. Ha-Seong Kim drew a leadoff walk, stole second and third, then raced home on a Juan Soto dribbler to the first base side of the mound.
Hancock allowed one run on two hits. The right-hander walked three and struck out three.
The Mariners tied it in the third off Padres starter Yu Darvish. Marlowe led off with a single to right and took a big turn toward second. Outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. tried to throw out Marlowe as he dove back to first, but the throw was low and bounced off the bottom of Marlowe’s cleats and ricocheted toward the Mariners’ dugout.
Marlowe took second on the error then advanced to third on Rojas’ groundout to the right side of the infield. He scored on J.P. Crawford’s sacrifice fly.
Darvish went six-plus innings and gave up one unearned run on six hits. He walked two and fanned four.
–Field Level Media
