Mariners 5, Rays 4
Rookie Brad Miller belted a pair of solo homers and Dustin Ackley had a go-ahead RBI triple among three hits as visiting Seattle handed Tampa Bay its season-high sixth straight loss.
Justin Smoak recorded two hits, two RBIs and scored on Ackley’s three-base hit to center field for a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning. Seattle starter Erasmo Ramirez (4-0) allowed four runs and seven hits over 5 1/3 innings to earn the victory while Danny Farquhar struck out two in the ninth for his fifth save.
Ben Zobrist homered twice and knocked in three runs for the Rays, who dropped four games behind Boston in the American League East and are 1-10 after off days. Tampa Bay starter Chris Archer (6-5) surrendered five runs on nine hits in five-plus innings for his second straight loss.
Miller hammered the third pitch of the game into the right-center field seats for Seattle’s major league-leading 24th first-inning home run. Zobrist answered by leading off the bottom of the first with his 100th career blast and James Loney delivered an RBI single to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead.
The Mariners jumped back in front 3-2 in the fourth on Smoak’s two-out, two-run single that glanced off shortstop Yunel Escobar’s glove. Miller, who also went deep twice on July 19 at Houston, crushed a 2-2 pitch to the seats in right in the fifth before Zobrist tied it 4-4 with a two-run shot to right in the bottom of the frame.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Miller and Zobrist are the first pair of leadoff hitters to record two homers in the same game since Chuck Knoblauch (Minnesota) and Tony Phillips (Detroit) accomplished the feat June 5, 1994. … It was the first time both teams led off the first inning with homers in an AL game since Aug. 17, 2006, when it happened twice. Johnny Damon (New York Yankees) and Brian Roberts (Baltimore) did it in one; Pablo Ozuna (Chicago White Sox) and David DeJesus (Kansas City) in the other. … Rays LHP Wesley Wright, claimed on waivers Monday, gave up Ackley’s run-scoring triple before retiring the next three - two on strikeouts.