Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez and Luke Raley each homered Thursday afternoon to help the visiting Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland A’s 6-4 and earn a split of the teams’ four-game series.
Raleigh added a sacrifice fly, Raley had three hits and Victor Robles contributed two hits and scored twice for Seattle (71-70), which snapped a four-game skid with Wednesday’s 16-3 win.
Mariners right-hander Bryan Woo (7-2) allowed two runs on eight hits in five innings, striking out six without a walk.
Oakland right-hander Joey Estes (6-7) surrendered four runs on six hits in four innings. He struck out three and did not walk a batter.
Brent Rooker hit his 34th and 35th home runs of the season and Seth Brown had two hits and an RBI for the Athletics (61-80).
Robles was hit by a pitch to lead off the game, stole second and went to third when the catcher’s throw went into center field. Rodriguez grounded out to first, but Raleigh turned on a fastball and pulled it over the fence in right for a two-run homer and a 2-0 lead.
It was the 88th home run of Raleigh’s career, tying him with Rudy York for second most among major league catchers in their first four seasons. Mike Piazza has the most with 92.
Rodriguez homered on the first pitch of the third inning, a 448-foot shot to left, extending the lead to 3-0.
Oakland loaded the bases with one out in the third on singles by Jacob Wilson, Lawrence Butler and JJ Bleday. Brown lined a sacrifice fly to center to trim the lead to 3-1.
Robles beat out a routine grounder to shortstop to start the fifth for Seattle. Rodriguez then reached on a fielding error by third baseman Max Schuemann, putting runners on the corners and ending Estes’s day
Raleigh followed with a sacrifice fly off reliever T.J. McFarland to make it 4-1. In the bottom of the fifth, Rooker lifted a low slider over the fence in left to cut it to 4-2.
The Mariners went up 6-2 in the ninth on Raley’s two-run shot to center. Those runs proved pivotal, as Rooker blasted a two-run homer off Andres Munoz in the bottom half of the inning to pull the A’s within 6-4.
