Cal Raleigh homers but Mariners lose again against Rays

TAMPA, Fla. – The Mariners had storylines to success waiting to be a reality.

Down a run in the top of the ninth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays and desperate to get a win, Randy Arozarena came to the plate against his former team with one out and tying run on second and the winning run on first.

Admittedly hurt by being traded away to Seattle by the Rays last season, Arozarena could’ve showed them the mistake they made and remind the Rays fans what they are missing. Instead, he flew out to shallow right field.

Down to the last out, Cal Raleigh stepped to the plate with the game on the line. Loud chants of ‘MVP! MVP!’ could be heard at George M. Steinbrenner Field from the large contingent of Mariners fans in the small crowd. He’d already hit his 51st homer earlier in the game, but had also struck out with the bases loaded in the seventh inning. Could he put them ahead?

Raleigh hit a sky-high ball in the infield that was caught by third baseman Junior Caminero.

Game over.

There was no happy ending on Tuesday night. It was a now familiar finish instead – yet another road failure and a 6-5 loss to the Rays.On a day when they had a meeting to discuss the sense of urgency needed for these final 20-plus games of the season, Seattle lost.

On a day when manager Dan Wilson talked with his old manager Lou Piniella about this final push and later got ejected by home plate umpire Manny Gonzalez after Dom Canzone was ejected from the bench for arguing balls and strikes, the Mariners fell to 7-15 in road games since the All-Star break.

But this game was only part of a larger and frustratingly familiar story arc that seems to be materializing once again – a late-season swoon that could force the Mariners into playing for their postseason lives on the final day of the season.

“You don’t want to be in that situation again for three years in a row,” Raleigh said. “That’s just the truth. There’s no sugarcoating it. That would be a terrible, terrible way to go out. But it’s our job to do everything we can to push through and make it a reality of being in the playoffs.”

When the game ended, J.P. Crawford, who was on first base, spiked his helmet in disgust. He doesn’t take losing any game well. But his anger was at a new level.

“It’s not a lack of focus. It’s not lack of work,” Crawford said. “This is the hardest working group of men I’ve been with ever in my career. it’s not any of that. It’s just sometimes when we get knocked down in the fight, we stay down, and we can’t have that right now. All these games matter. If we get down early, we have to find a way to come back. We came back today, but we have to do more.”

The Mariners (73-66) remain three games back in the AL West with Houston losing to the Yankees. But they now hold a precarious one game lead over the Rangers for the third wild card spot.

It’s why they held the pregame meeting, which Wilson called an “open forum” to let players say what they felt was needed.

“You just gotta take accountability for it,” said Bryan Woo. “I mean, this point of the year, you can make all the excuses you want. You just gotta play better. You gotta be better. You gotta have more urgency. I think all the guys in the locker room, especially the guys that have been here the last couple of years, are sick and tired of the last couple of years and what has happened in August and September. It’s up to us to flip the script and do something about it, and that’s all it really comes down to.”

Woo gave the Mariners his shortest start of the season. The right-hander, who had his streak of pitching six-plus innings in every start this season snapped in his previous outing, pitched five innings, allowing three runs on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts.

It was the first time this season where Woo walked more than two batters in a game. And it snapped a streak of 48 starts with two or fewer walks.

“Not good enough,” Woo said, lamenting the number of times he fell behind hitters. “I’ve got to be better. It’s just a mentality thing. I think I just try to nibble in corners too early. It’s extremely frustrating. You feel like you take pride in things like that and then you don’t execute on them. That part can hurt more than the results, just because the process is much more controllable.”

He actually started the sixth inning but was lifted after Caminero somehow managed to get the barrel of his bat to a 95-mph fastball well inside in on his hands, turning it into a solo homer off the concrete pillars holding up the video board in deep left-center.

With Woo at 84 pitches, acting manager Manny Acta lifted him for lefty Caleb Ferguson.

The Rays grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Yandy Diaz worked a one-out walk, Brandon Lowe followed with a double and Caminero followed with a single past J.P.

Crawford to drive in the first run. The Rays added another run on a fielder’s choice.

A 2-0 lead for Rays starter Drew Rasmussen seemed like plenty. The former Mt. Spokane and Oregon State standout hadn’t allowed more than two earned runs in any of his nine previous starts. That included a start in Seattle where he threw six shutout innings, allowing four hits.

It looked like he might deliver a similar performance, holding the Mariners scoreless for the three innings and allowing one hit. But the Mariners broke through in the fourth inning.

Raleigh battled Rasmussen for eight pitches, fouling off three straight 3-2 pitches. And on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, smacked homer No. 51 on the season.

Raleigh ripped a low line drive over the wall in right field. Less than a minute later, Julio Rodriguez ambushed a first-pitch cutter, sending a deep fly ball over the wall in right-center to make to back-to-back homers.

But the Mariners weren’t done peppering Rasmussen in the inning. With two outs, Jorge Polanco crushed a ball so far over the stands in right field that it carried out of the park for a solo homer.

Rasmussen made it through five innings, allowing the three runs on four hits with no walks and two strikeouts.”