Four Washington relievers combined for four hitless innings as the Nationals defeated visiting Seattle 3-1 Saturday, sending the Mariners to their season-worst fourth consecutive loss.
Dylan Floro (1-0) got the victory and Kyle Finnegan pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 14th save.
Keibert Ruiz went 2 for 2 with a double and an RBI and also scored a run for the Nationals.
Washington broke a 1-all tie in the bottom of the seventh inning. With one out, Jesse Winker grounded a single to center field off reliever Gabe Speier (0-2) and stole second.
Ruiz singled on a shallow fly ball to left, advancing Winker to third.
The Mariners brought in Trent Thornton to pitch and the Nationals countered with pinch-hitter Ildemaro Vargas, who grounded out on a slow roller to shortstop J.P. Crawford to score pinch-runner Victor Robles.
Joey Gallo then lined a single to right, scoring Ruiz from second to make it 3-1.
The Nationals opened the scoring in the second with some small ball. Luis Garcia Jr. led off with a single on a soft ground ball to third base. Garcia stole second and advanced to third on Winker’s bunt single to the right side of the infield.
Ruiz lifted a sacrifice fly to center field to make it 1-0.
The Mariners tied it in the fifth as Julio Rodriguez led off with a 433-foot shot to center field on a 1-2 sinker from Nationals starter Trevor Williams. It was just the third home run of the season for Rodriguez and snapped an 0-for-17 slump.
Seattle’s Dylan Moore led off the sixth with a double into the left-field corner, ending Williams’ outing. Lefty reliever Robert Garcia got Luke Raley to line out to left field and struck out Cal Raleigh and pinch-hitter Mitch Garver to get out of the inning unscathed.
Williams allowed one run on five hits in five-plus innings to lower his ERA to 2.29. The right-hander didn’t walk a batter and struck out eight.
Mariners starter Logan Gilbert went six innings and gave up one run on three hits. The right-hander didn’t walk a batter and fanned four.
Other than the second inning, the only other hit Gilbert allowed was a leadoff double by Ruiz in the fifth. Gilbert got Nick Senzel to line out to right and Gallo and Jacob Young to ground out to first to end the inning.
-Field Level Media
