Julio Rodriguez broke out of a slump with a home run and a double, rallying the Seattle Mariners to a 7-3 victory against the visiting Baltimore Orioles on Thursday afternoon in a matchup of division leaders.
J.P. Crawford hit a three-run double with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to break a tie and Mitch Garver followed with a two-run homer as the American League West-leading Mariners snapped a four-game losing streak.
Gunnar Henderson and Jordan Westburg went deep for the Orioles, the AL East leaders, who had won six of their previous seven games.
Seattle’s Ryne Stanek (6-2) got the victory with a scoreless inning of relief.
Rodriguez, who entered the game in a 3-for-37 skid, led off the decisive seventh with a double to left-center off Orioles reliever Bryan Baker (1-1). Rodriguez stole third, and walks to Ty France and Mitch Haniger loaded the bases. Crawford greeted lefty Keegan Akin with a liner into the gap in right-center that rolled all the way to the wall to clear the bases.
Five pitches later, Garver went deep to center to make it 7-2.
Westburg homered in the eighth off reliever Trent Thornton to cap the scoring.
The Orioles broke a scoreless tie in the third as James McCann grounded a single to right field and Henderson followed with an opposite-field shot to left-center, his 27th homer of the season.
The Mariners tied it in the fifth after Rodriguez led off by hammering an 0-2 pitch over the center field wall. Singles by France and Josh Rojas and a walk to Haniger loaded the bases with no outs before rookie Ryan Bliss grounded into a double play, scoring France to make it 2-2.
Both starters pitched well but didn’t factor into the decision.
Baltimore ace Corbin Burnes went six innings and allowed two runs on four hits, with one walk and six strikeouts.
Seattle’s Bryce Miller lasted 5 2/3 innings and gave up two runs on eight hits. Like Burnes, Miller walked one and fanned six.
–Field Level Media