SEATTLE — Marco Gonzales continued his run of excellent starts by pitching into the seventh inning and allowing just one run, and Ryon Healy hit his ninth homer as the Seattle Mariners beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 on Saturday night.
Gonzales (6-3) ran his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 24 1/3 before finally giving up an earned run in the sixth inning. It was his only hiccup in another impressive performance by the left-hander who is quickly developing into one of the more reliable arms in Seattle’s rotation. Gonzales gave up five hits and struck out six, and was on the verge of getting through the seventh inning before a two-out walk to Christian Arroyo.
In his past four starts, Gonzales has allowed one earned run over 26 innings pitched and struck out 18. Gonzales had not allowed an earned run since his May 12 start against Detroit.
Healy’s home run leading off the sixth inning was a towering shot and the sixth allowed this season by Tampa Bay reliever Wilmer Font. Seattle also got an RBI single from Nelson Cruz and an RBI double from Kyle Seager in the third inning to take a 2-0 lead against Chris Archer. Fireworks normally reserved for home runs at Safeco Field were inadvertently set off for Seager’s double that hopped off the wall.
Archer (3-4) allowed two runs in five innings, his shortest outing since going only four innings on April 14 against Philadelphia.
Gonzales saw his scoreless inning streak end with one out in the sixth as Matt Duffy scored from first on Wilson Ramos’ double that hit the top of the wall in left-center, but instead of bouncing over fell back into the field of play.
Alex Colome pitched the eighth and Edwin Diaz worked the ninth for his 20th save.
LATE NIGHT
Dee Gordon got some unexpected attention when reporters caught him hitting off a tee on the field around 12:30 a.m. early Saturday morning well after Seattle’s 13-inning victory had wrapped up. Gordon was 0 for 6 in the game and spent time hitting in the cage before taking to the field.
Gordon didn’t like the attention the extra hitting session received and was reluctant to talk much about it.
“I just needed it,” Gordon said. “I’ve been out for a while. I’ve got a lot going on, switching positions and everything. I wanted to hit.”
BLUNDERS ON BASES
Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash was still upset Saturday about a pair of base-running errors made by the Rays in Friday’s extra-innings loss.
“Look, our guys understand we have to do some better things and some smarter decision-making on the bases. Last night, it showed up and it was ugly,” Cash said.
It wasn’t any prettier Saturday, although there were fewer baserunners. The one notable blunder came when Rob Refsnyder was caught leaning and picked off by Gonzales at first base in the fifth.
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