By Adam Jude / The Seattle Times
SEATTLE — Best win of the year?
The Seattle Mariners rallied from an early five-run deficit to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 7-6 and claim a series win over the best team in baseball on a beautiful Sunday afternoon before a crowd of 36,541 at T-Mobile Park.
Rookie Jose Caballero, stepping to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh inning, was hit in the side on the first pitch thrown by Rays reliever Jason Adam.
That scored Teoscar Hernandez for the go-ahead run, completing the Mariners’ comeback from a 6-1 deficit in one of the most riveting games they have played this season.
Considering the competition, and the considering where they were just two days earlier — crushed 15-4 in the series opener on Friday, just hours after a players-only team meeting, and on the heels of an embarrassing series loss to the lowly Washington Nationals — you could make a good case that this, indeed, is as significant as any victory the Mariners (40-42) have had in this roller coaster of a season.
Tom Murphy, continuing his torrid stretch at the plate, hit a deep home run to left field of left-hander Colin Poche in the sixth inning to tie the score at 6.
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 rocked early Saturday.
Randy Arozarena, who will compete in the MLB Home Run Derby here at T-Mobile Park on July 10, homered off Castillo in the first inning.
Isaac Paredes added a solo shot in the second inning.
It was an eventful (and fruitful) third inning for both teams.
The Rays scored four runs in the top half of the inning, benefiting from an error by Mariners second baseman Jose Caballero and a misplayed ground ball 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 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.
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.
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.
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