“Home runs are awesome.”
In a season where Mariners manager Scott Servais had made a number of comments that have been turned into T-shirts, that simple statement, which he made a few days ago after their only win in a frustrating series in Oakland, rang true for his team on Tuesday night.
And the 38,254 fans and unlisted number of dogs in attendance packed into T-Mobile Park definitely felt the same.
The Mariners rewarded the lively crowd and starting pitcher Robbie Ray with two-run homers from Mitch Haniger and Eugenio Suarez en route to a 4-2 victory over the Washington Nationals.
With the win, Seattle improved to 67-56 keeping pace with the Blue Jays (66-55) and Rays (67-55), who both won on Tuesday.
The Mariners got an outstanding start from Ray, who flirted with a no-hitter in his 25th start of the season while pitching 6 2/3 innings, allowing one run on two hits with two walks and seven strikeouts to improve to 10-8.
Seattle provided him with minimal run support during his outing. Haniger homered for the second straight game, crushing a two-run homer to left field off Nationals starter Erick Fedde in the fourth inning.
The veteran lefty retired the first 10 batters he faced before walking Alex Call to start the fourth inning. He erased Call from the bases, picking him off with two outs.
Ray issued a two-out walk in the fifth inning, but struck out Riley Adams to end the inning.
Ray’s no-hitter bid, which probably would’ve had to be a combined no-hitter due to a growing pitch count, came to an end immediately in the seventh inning.
A 1-0 fastball caught just enough of the outside part of the plate for rookie Joey Meneses to turn it into a deep fly ball over the wall in center field.
Not only did it end Ray’s no-hitter, but it also cut the Mariners lead to 2-1.
Ray came back to strike out Luke Voit and get Nelson Cruz to ground out. But after Ray gave up an infield single to Lane Thomas on his 103rd pitch of the outing, Servais went to his bullpen.
It meant a fancy new entrance complete with fire siren, the lights going out and the new nickname of the bullpen — Los Bomberos (The Firemen) — flashing on the video board for Andres Munoz as he came from the bullpen. Munoz lived up to the hype video, striking out Cesar Hernandez to end the inning.
The Mariners got that run back immediately and some much needed cushion against one-time Mariners closer Steve Cishek in the bottom of the inning.
Carlos Santana dumped a single into left field and Suarez followed with his team-high 23rd homer — a 430-foot missile with an exit velocity of 108 mph that smacked off the electronic out-of-town scoreboard in deep left-center.