Mariners rally from 5-run deficit to beat Rays, 7-6, and take series from MLB’s best team

Considering who they were playing, and considering where they sat some 42 hours earlier — whatever is below the bottom of the rock bottom — the Mariners have to feel as good about their about-face Sunday as anything they’ve done in this teeter-totter season.

A five-run early deficit? Their ace on the rocks? Their offense stuck in neutral? Their season on the brink?

The Mariners finally found some answers on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, rallying to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-6 and claim a series win over the best team in baseball before a crowd of 36,541 at T-Mobile Park.

“For as much heat as our offense has taken here — and rightly so; we have not produced — I just thought the way the guys responded today was awesome,” manager Scott Servais said.

Trailing 6-1 after a shaky start from Luis Castillo, Servais understood what many had to be thinking entering the bottom of the third inning: Oh, here we go again.

The Mariners (40-42) were embarrassed a few days earlier in losing two of three at home to the Washington Nationals. They were embarrassed again Friday night in the series opener against the Rays (57-28), who scored 15 unanswered runs in an ugly runaway win.

That the Mariners answered with a late charge in an 8-3 win on Saturday, and then followed that up with this riveting comeback Sunday afternoon, has to rank as the most significant achievement of the first half of the season for a team that’s been desperately searching for some offensive identity and some consistent production.

Could this be a victory that sparks ’em?

“There’s nothing better than winning in the big leagues, and sometimes there’s nothing worse than losing in the big leagues,” said catcher Tom Murphy, whose 422-foot home run in the sixth inning tied the score at 6-6. “Hopefully this win is something that propels us forward and continues to make us work and make us hungry.”

The Mariners left Sunday evening for the Bay Area to open a series Monday in San Francisco against a Giants (46-37) team that has been one of the hottest in the National League of late. The Mariners head from there to Houston to close out the first half against their arch rivals.

They need to make a strong push before the break, they know it, and they’re confident they can do it.

“This is a resilient group. We don’t give up,” Julio Rodriguez said. “There’s probably a lot of people out there who think we should or that we’re done or whatever. But that’s not what we think every time we step on the field. And I feel like this group is going to stay like that. We’re going to keep fighting, no matter what you throw at us.”

Rookie Jose Caballero, stepping to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning Sunday, took the first pitch thrown at him by Rays reliever Jason Adam. It was a wayward fastball hit Caballero in the side, bringing in Teoscar Hernandez from third base for the go-ahead run to give the M’s a 7-6 lead.

Eugenio Suarez hit his ninth homer in the second inning, and Mike Ford delivered a clutch two-out, two-run single in the Mariners’ four-run third inning.

Mariners ace Luis Castillo, on the same afternoon he was named to the MLB All-Star Game, was touched up for six runs (five earned) through the first three innings.

Randy Arozarena, who will compete in the MLB Home Run Derby here at T-Mobile Park next week, homered off Castillo in the first inning. It came on a 96-mph fastball located four or five inches inside the plate, and Arozarena still turned on it and pulled it 359 feet out to left field.

Isaac Paredes added a solo shot in the second inning — again on a decent-enough pitch from Castillo, a slider low and away.

It was an eventful (and fruitful) third inning for both teams.

The Rays score four runs on the top half of the inning, benefiting from an error on Caballero and a misplayed groundball by shortstop J.P. Crawford (generously ruled a hit for Harold Ramirez).

Only one of the Rays’ five hits in the inning registered an exit velocity above 95 mph, and four of them were singles. The Rays, a great contact-hitting team, sent nine batters to the plate and consistently put the ball in play. They scored on a sacrifice fly from Wander Franco, and Luke Raley added a key two-run double.

The Mariners batted around in the bottom half of the third, answering with four runs of their own, and registering six batted balls as “hard” hits (of 95 mph or more) off Rays rookie right-hander Taj Bradley.

Ty France followed Julio Rodriguez’s double with one of his own to cut the Rays’ lead to 6-2. And speaking of hard hits, France collided with Rays third baseman Isaac Paredes on a slow ground ball off the bat of Hernandez.

Both players stayed on the ground for a few moments, and Paredes ended up exiting the game with Rays trainers. France said later he had the wind knocked out of him but was OK otherwise.

The next batter, Jarred Kelenic, hit an opposite-field double to score France. Ford followed with his two-run single on a line drive up the middle.

Castillo, despite his early struggles, settled in to pitch six innings, retiring nine of the last 10 batters he faced.

“Luckily for me, I was able to make those adjustments for the following innings and we were able to have a good game,” Castillo said through interpreter Freddy Llanos. “But the most important thing for me today is that we were able to get that victory.”

Mariners relievers Andres Munoz, Matt Brash and Paul Sewald worked the final three scoreless innings to close it out.

Sewald retired the Rays in order in the ninth for his 16th save.