8/9/25

(Seattle, WA) Saturday night was a special night in Seattle Mariners history and a special night for the city itself. Ichiro Suzuki would be honored and have his #51 retired, becoming just the fourth number retired by the Mariners and joining Jackie Robinson, Ken Griffey Jr., and Edgar Martínez out in center field forever. Ichiro just became the first Japanese born player to make it to the MLB Hall of Fame just a few weeks ago.

There was also a baseball game at T-Mobile Park as the Seattle Mariners battled the Tampa Bay Rays in game two of their three-game series. Seattle took the opener thanks to a clutch two-out, three-run home run in the 8th inning by Cal Raleigh to give the M’s their fifth straight win.

Saturday’s pitching matchup was very different from the veteran battle that took place in the opener. Reliever turned starter Joe Boyle would be the starter in game two for Tampa Bay, making just his fourth start of the season. For Seattle, rookie Logan Evans would take the ball as he battles for a roster spot with the looming return of Bryce Miller.

Mariners 7, Rays 4 (Game Two)

As always, the Seattle Mariners put together a fantastic ceremony to honor one of the greatest hitters in baseball history. Ichiro gave a wonderful speech in front of his fellow Mariner Hall of Famers and was moved by the announcement from GM John Stanton that a statue would be created in his honor, joining Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martínez outside of T-Mobile Park forever.

Once the game started it was a very familiar feeling to the opener the night before. Logan Evans came out and retired the first batter he faced before Brandon Lowe made an immediate impact…again. Evans sinker didn’t get in on the hands of Lowe like he wanted and instead the second baseman drove a fly ball the other way. It had just enough juice to get out for a solo home run and Lowe’s 22nd of the season. For the second time in as many days, Lowe’s solo blast two batters into the game had given Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead.

Unlike in the opener, the Mariners didn’t wait until the 8th inning to get the offense going. In the bottom of the 1st, Randy Arozarena led off with a walk against flamethrower Joe Boyle. While Boyle would get Cal Raleigh swinging on a perfectly located 101-mph heater, he would challenge Julio Rodríguez with a 99-mph fastball right down the middle. Julio was on time and crushed a two-run shot out to the J-Rod Squad in center for his 22nd of the year. The immediate response got the crowd into it early and gave Seattle a 2-1 lead.

Both pitchers had clean innings in the 2nd and both with issue a walk in the 3rd, but Evans was able to strand his. Joe Boyle was not as fortunate as he issued a free pass to Cole Young to begin the bottom of the 3rd. Randy Arozarena would then slap a single back up the middle to put two on for the meat of the Mariners lineup with nobody out. Cal Raleigh wasn’t waiting around and got a fastball on the outside corner and went with it out to left center. It would be caught by Mariners bullpen catcher Fleming Báez for Cal’s 44th long ball of the season. He didn’t get to hold on to the Trident for too long as J-Rod jumped on the first pitch and sent a missile down the left field line that just got over the wall for his second homer of the game and 23rd of the year. The two stars of the franchise went back-to-back to open things up to a 6-1 lead.

Cal Raleigh showed his defensive prowess by cutting down the speedy Chandler Simpson trying to steal and things stayed quiet on the offensive end into the 6th. That is when things got interesting. Yandy Díaz began the inning with a walk against Logan Evans and two batters later, Josh Lowe singled to put runners on the corners with one out. Dan Wilson would take his rookie right-hander out of the game and bring in lefty Caleb Ferguson to face the dangerous Junior Caminero. Ferguson got ahead of the All-Star 0-2, but missed his spot with a heater and left it up and over the heart of the plate. Caminero was all over it and for the second consecutive game drove a homer of his own out to center. The three-run blast was Caminero’s 32nd of the season and just the second home run allowed by Ferguson this year. More importantly, it made this game much tighter with the Mariner lead down to 6-4.

The bottom of the 6th began with a wild at-bat between J.P. Crawford and reliever Mason Englert. A 17-pitch battle ensued with the crowd getting into each and every pitch as Crawford continued to battle. Englert would win the war by getting J.P. to pop out to short but that AB seemed to take a bit of gas out of Englert’s tank. He would walk Cole Young and give up a single to Randy Arozarena to put runners on the corners. A wild pitch would allow Young to score and the M’s got a bit more breathing room with their lead up to 7-4.

Eduard Bazardo and Gabe Speier pitched well out of the bullpen, retiring all six batters they faced thanks to a great play by Josh Naylor at first. That set things up for Andrés Muñoz who was on for the 9th in a save situation. He would give up a leadoff single to Junior Caminero before bouncing back to strikeout Chandler Simpson. Nick Fortes would then fly out to Arozarena in left but Ha-Seong Kim extended the inning with a walk to bring the tying run to the plate in Tristan Peters. It was just Peters second big league game after making his debut on Friday and he had a chance to be the hero for Tampa Bay. It wasn’t mean to be as Muñoz dispatched of the rookie on three pitches to slam the door. The M’s wouldn’t be denied on Ichiro’s special night as Seattle made it six consecutive wins with a 7-4 victory over Tampa Bay to lock up another series win.

Notable Performances

Rays

Mariners

• Julio Rodríguez- 2-5, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 R
• Cal Raleigh- 1-4, HR, 3 RBI, R, BB
• Logan Evans (W, 6-4)- 5.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 SO

What’s Next

Things went nearly perfectly for the Seattle Mariners (65-53) on Saturday with a bulk of the American League playoff contenders losing. Houston lost in another thriller to New York while Texas blew their game late against Philadelphia. Boston also fell in extras to San Diego while Cleveland earned the win over the Chicago White Sox. With those results, the Mariners now trail the Astros by just half of a game in the AL West going into Sunday. In the Wild Card race, Seattle and Boston are now tied for the top spot in the American League while the Yankees hold the final spot, 2 1/2 games behind the M’s and Red Sox. Texas and Cleveland are on the outside looking in with the Guardians half of a game out and the Rangers 2 1/2 back.

Seattle and Tampa Bay will wrap up their series on Sunday at 1:10pm as the Mariners go for a second consecutive sweep and their seventh win in a row. To do so, Bryan Woo (9-6, 3.02 ERA) will lead the charge as he looks to continue his historic stretch. Woo has gone 6+ innings in all 22 of his starts this season. Tampa Bay will go with Adrian Houser (6-3, 2.54 ERA) in the finale after acquiring him from the White Sox at the deadline. Houser is having a career year but had a tough debut with the Rays in which he allowed five runs on 11 hits in just 5 2/3 innings in a loss to the Angels.

elisportsnetwork.com