Mariners rough up Rays’ Houser to win seventh straight
Published 10:00 pm Sunday, August 10, 2025
SEATTLE — Cal Raleigh hit his MLB-leading 45th home run of the season, and the Seattle Mariners won 6-3 Sunday at T-Mobile Park.
Seattle won its seventh-straight game and third straight series to improve to 66-53, one-half game behind 66-52 Houston in the American League West division.
“It was a great way to end the homestand,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “Just another outstanding ballgame by our guys.”
Meanwhile, if the Rays are going to make the late run for a playoff spot they keep talking about, they are going to do it the hard way.
Sunday’s 6-3 loss, capping a winless weekend in Seattle, dropped them to a season-low-matching five games under .500 at 57-62. Also to a challenging 5 1/2 games, and five teams, from the third American League wild-card spot, currently held by the Yankees.
And with only 43 games left.
“Not happy. I think that’s the best way to put it. We’re not happy with the way that we played,” Rays manager Kevin Cash told reporters in Seattle, detailing several of their weekend transgressions. “We’re just not playing good baseball.”
Starter Adrian Houser, making his second start following his July 31 acquisition from the White Sox, put the Rays in a huge hole with a miserable 45-pitch first inning, allowing four runs. That matched the most the Rays gave up in a first inning this season, also April 5 at Texas.
“Getting four there in the first — 45-pitch inning — that’s really hard to do,” Wilson said. “Really good at bats, getting traffic (on the basepaths).”
The Rays battled back, closing the gap to 4-3 by the fourth, but squandered several chances to get closer, stranding three runners at second, as they were swept for the sixth time.
The Rays lost for ninth time in their last 12 games, the seventh in 22 since the All-Star break and the 27th in 38 games since their majors-best 25-9 run ended in late June.
Houser, acquired to replace the traded Zack Littell in the rotation, had quite the first inning two days after wearing an Oklahoma City Thunder basketball jersey during the field during pregame.
He allowed four runs. He faced 10 batters. He gave up four hits, (including the two-run shot Raleigh), walked three and hit one. He balked, setting up a two-run single. He had Cash considering some tough decisions. He had the bases loaded when he got the third out. He threw a whopping 45 pitches, the most by a Ray in a first inning since 2017 (Jake Odorizzi, 48, at Seattle).
As bad as that was, Houser regrouped for the second inning and somewhat reset his pitch count, getting three outs on seven pitches thanks to an inning-ending double play.
He ended up turning it into an OK day, battling his way through five innings.
“Give him a lot of credit,” Cash said. “That was a really not good start. You could tell he didn’t have a feel for any of his pitches, no command, just wasn’t very crisp. Took him to a pitch count we didn’t really like doing in one inning, 45 pitches.
“But give him a ton of credit. He was able to take a deep breath in between (innings). The offense kind of came back. And he dialed it in and gave us a chance.”
Houser’s teammates responded, cutting the lead by scoring in three consecutive innings.
They got a run in the second, when Josh Lowe and Ha-Seong Kim doubled off Seattle All-Star starter Bryan Woo, who worked at least six innings for the 23rd straight outing.
They got another in the third when Chandler Simpson led off with a triple to the leftfield corner and came home on a Yandy Diaz groundout.
And they cut the lead to 4-3 in the fourth when Kim hit a two-out homer off Woo, but that was it.
The Mariners expanded their lead to 5-3 in the seventh when Josh Naylor homered off Rays reliever Bryan Baker. They added another run in the eighth off Edwin Uceta.
The Rays left after the game for their first visit to Sacramento, the interim home of the A’s, who also are playing in a minor-league stadium.
