Richie Palacios delivered a tiebreaking two-run single with two outs in the sixth inning as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated host Seattle 3-2 on Saturday on a night the Mariners celebrated the top 50 players in their 50-season history.
Victor Mesa Jr. homered for the American League East-leading Rays, who won their fifth in a row and for the 14th time in their past 18 games.
Josh Naylor hit two solo homers and a double for the Mariners, who have lost three in a row and four of their past five.
Seven Rays relievers combined to allow eight hits after scheduled starter Griffin Jax was a late scratch with right elbow discomfort.
Steven Matz (5-4) got the victory and Bryan Baker pitched the ninth for his MLB-leading 34th save of the season.
The Rays broke a 1-1 with two unearned runs in the sixth off Mariners reliever Michael Rucker (0-3). Junior Caminero led off and reached on a fielding error by third baseman Brendan Donovan. Chandler Simpson grounded a one-out single to center and pinch hitter Liam Hicks drew a two-out walk to load the bases. Palacios lined a 2-2 curveball just over leaping second baseman Cole Young to score a pair.
Naylor led off the bottom of the seventh with a homer to right-center off Garrett Cleavinger to make it 3-2 but the Mariners were unable to manufacture another run.
The Mariners opened the scoring in the second as Naylor greeted Cam Booser by going deep to right-center with one out. It snapped Naylor’s 43-game homerless drought.
The Rays were hitless until Mesa hit a ball deep to right off Mariners starter George Kirby with two outs in the fourth.
Kirby went five innings and allowed one run on four hits. The right-hander walked two and struck out two.
Mariners manager Dan Wilson was ejected after home-plate umpire Emil Jimenez refused to grant an automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge by Julio Rodriguez on a called third strike to end the sixth. Jimenez ruled Rodriguez had waited too long to tap his helmet following the pitch.
