Bryan Woo pitched seven strong innings, retiring the final 12 batters he faced, and Cal Raleigh went 2-for-3 with a double and a home run as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Texas Rangers 9-2 on Saturday night.
Julio Rodriguez went 2-for-5 with a run-scoring triple and Luke Raley was 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs as the Mariners won their third consecutive game and their fourth in their past five. Woo (2-0) allowed one run on six hits, with one walk and seven strikeouts.
The Rangers opened the scoring in the first inning. Marcus Semien drew a leadoff walk and Corey Seager lined a single to left field. Josh Smith followed with a single to center to make it 1-0. Adolis Garcia hit a fly ball to right-center that dropped due to a miscommunication between center fielder Rodriguez and right fielder Luke Raley, loading the bases with no outs. Woo escaped further damage as he got Joc Pederson to fly out to shallow right and then struck out Josh Jung and Jake Burger.
The Mariners took the lead with a four-run third off Rangers starter Kumar Rocker (0-2). The right-hander allowed four runs (three earned) on five hits, walked two and fanned two over 3 1/3 innings.
With one out, J.P. Crawford lined a single to left and Rodriguez tripled into the gap in left-center. Jorge Polanco lifted a sacrifice fly to deep center to make it 2-1. Raleigh doubled to center and Randy Arozarena walked. Raleigh scored from second and Arozarena advanced two bases on a passed ball by Jonah Heim. Raley lined a double to left for a 4-1 lead.
Raleigh, who hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth inning of a 5-3 victory Friday night in the series opener while using a “torpedo” bat for the first time, went deep to straightaway center off reliever Caleb Boushley with two outs in the fifth.
The Mariners pulled away with four runs in the seventh. Crawford led off with a walk and Rodriguez reached on an infield single before Raleigh walked with one out to load the bases. With two outs, Raley grounded a two-run single off the glove of diving second baseman Semien and Rowdy Tellez hit a two-run double to right-center.
The Rangers scored the last run in the ninth as Jung doubled with one out and Burger lined a single to left.
