Mariners Noon Number: 1

The Seattle Mariners beat the Washington Nationals 4-2 on Thursday to salvage the series finale at Nationals Park, the first time in six games the M’s scored more than one run in a game.

In the Mariners now-ended five-game losing streak, they’d scored exactly one run in each.

Nelson Cruz delivered the big blow in this one: a sixth inning three-run home run off reliever Jacob Turner. All that remained was for the bullpen to successfully negotiate the Nats deep lineup.

It took nearly every arm in the pen, as Tony Zych, James Pazos, Nick Vincent, Marc Rzepczynski and Edwin Diaz all took their turns to keep the Nats scoreless for four innings.

The Mariners ship up to Boston for a three-game weekend set feeling a little better about themselves but they aren’t out of the woods yet. Following that series is a pair in Colorado, then two more at home with the N.L. West-leading Rockies.

Treading water on this road trip became feasible with the win in D.C., but there’s lots of work to be done.