Mariners Game Recap: M’s Walk Off Rays to Complete Sweep

The Mariners walked off the Rays to secure their 21st win of the season and complete the series sweep.

The Seattle Mariners took a page out of last night’s book, frustrating Tampa Rays starter, Chris Archer, earlier and often. The team drew 3 walks- 1 that brought in a run- got 2 singles to finish off a 3-run 1st inning. Seth Smith picked up the most significant knock of the frame with a 2-run single.

Taijuan Walker was hoping for a complete outing after his last start when he only lasted 2 innings due to neck issues, and did he ever. He struck out 2 of 3 Rays, breezing through the 1st.

The 2nd and the 3rd went by smoothly for both sides, however Archer did surrender a line drive blast to center that carried over 400ft. Walker continued his early brilliance fanning 2 batters in each inning (3 straight going back to the first). Then the 4th and the 5th continued on with no real action, but Walker lengthened his strike out streak, getting one in the first two middle innings, now having struck out a batter in 5 consecutive frames.

The 6th inning was more like a movie that would be appropriately titled, “The Walks to Remember”. Walkers’ brilliance took a nose dive when he allowed 3 walks in the top half, matching his season total. Those base on balls would come back to haunt him as he gave up his first career grand slam to Corey Dickerson. The veteran outfielder’s grand slam tied the game at 4.

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Archer must have felt out done, so he decided to give a free pass to 1 more batter in the bottom half, raising his game total to 4 before he was taken off the mound. Reliever, Xavier Cedeno, picked up where the Rays’ starter left off, walking 2 of the 4 batters he faced.

Heading into the 7th, Robinson Cano was thankful to see a different pitcher. Before this game, Cano was 0-14 against Archer- he went 0-3 on this afternoon- so when he stepped in to face former Mariner, Erasmo Ramirez, the reigning American League Player of the Week smashed a double into the gap. After a wild pitch, Nelson Cruz hit a deep fly ball to left field that brought Cano home via the sac fly; the Mariners had retaken the lead.

Nick Vincent came on to close out the game instead of the regular Steve Cishek sighting because Cishek was forced to take care of 4 batters last night. Vincent let the Rays back into the game when he allowed a no-doubt solo home run to Kevin Kiermaier. The Mariners heart of the order (Ketel Marte, Cano and Cruz) couldn’t create any Emerald City magic in the final half of the 9th, and the game went into the 10th tied 5-5.

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While the Mariner faithful were treated to free baseball, it didn’t start out as enjoyable as they would’ve hoped. First, Vidal Nuno struggled, allowing a hit and a walk. He was followed by Steve Johnson who walked a batter to load the bases. He did however get out of the bases loaded, one out jam, taking care of the next 2 batters. Nerves weren’t eased as the Mariners couldn’t even muster a base runner in the 2nd chance to walk off.

Everything changed in the 11th when Chris Iannetta got enough power into a solo walk-off homer that just cleared the fence securing a Mariner win and their 2nd series win of May. The win meant the Mariners moved 21-13 to stay 1.5 games ahead of the Texas Rangers in the AL West.

Next: Mariners Look to Sting the Rays With a Sweep

Looking ahead, the Mariners (21-13) will have an off day on Thursday before welcoming the Los Angeles Angels (13-19) to Safeco Field on Friday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 pm from the corner of Edgar & Dave. Nate Karns (3-1, 3.38 ERA) will get the ball in the series opener, and Nick Tropeano (1-2, 3.69 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Halos.