The Seattle Mariners narrowly defeated the Tampa Bay Rays yesterday at Tropicana Field with the Mariners coming out on top 4 to 3. It was a solid match that aficionados with Mariners tickets won’t soon forget.
Mariners pitcher Miguel Batista (4.28 ERA) got the win, while Dan Wheeler (3.44 ERA) took the loss for the Rays. Ryan Rowland-Smith went 5 innings for the Mariners, allowed 6 hits, no home runs and 3 earned runs with 4 walks and one strikeout. Also pitching for the Mariners was Shawn Kelley (4.64). The Rays’s starter Jeff Niemann went 6.2 innings, allowed 4 hits, one home run and 3 earned runs with 4 walks and 5 strikeouts. Randy Choate (3.73), and J.P. Howell (2.84) also pitched for the Rays. With the win, Batista’s record goes to 7-4, while Wheeler is at 4-5. Mark Lowe earned the save for the Mariners, bringing his saves up to 3.
In addition to the 4 runs, the Mariners scored 5 hits and committed no errors. It wasn’t a huge day for anyone at the plate for the Mariners, as nobody managed more than 2 hits. The Rays didn’t have anyone with a big night with not one batter getting more than 2 hits. Evan Longoria could not get much going at the plate as he left 4 runners on base. The Rays scored 3 runs, 7 hits and no errors.
Umpiring duties were performed by Scott Barry, Damien Beal, Paul Emmel and Bruce Dreckman. There were 12,514 Rays ticket holders in attendance at Tropicana Field.
The win puts the Mariners at a record of 79-72, (11 games behind first place in the division), while the loss brings the Rays to 77-74, (18.5 games behind the division leader). The Rays and Mariners go again tomorrow. There are still plenty of tickets available so take a look.