TAMPA, Fla. — The Seattle Mariners had the storylines for success.
Down a run in the top of the ninth inning against Tampa Bay and desperate to get a win, Randy Arozarena came to the plate against his former team with runners on first and second base.
Hurt by being traded away from the team last season, Arozarena could’ve showed them the mistake they made. Instead, he flew out to shallow right field.
With two outs, Cal Raleigh stepped to the plate with the game on the line. Loud chants of MVP! MVP! could be heard at George M. Steinbrenner Field from the large contingent of Mariners fans in the small crowd.
Raleigh hit a sky-high ball that caught by third baseman Junior Caminero to end the game.
There was no happy ending on Tuesday night. It was a now familiar finish instead — yet another failure and a 6-5 loss to the Rays.
Bryan Woo gave the Mariners his shortest start of the season. The right-hander, who had his streak of pitching six-plus innings in every start this season snapped in his previous outing, pitched five innings, allowing three runs on four hits with three walks and three strikeouts.
It was the first time this season where Woo walked more than two batters in a game. And it snapped a streak of 48 starts with two or fewer walks.
He actually started the sixth inning but was lifted after Caminero somehow managed to get the barrel of his bat to a 95-mph fastball well inside in on his hands, turning it into a solo homer off the concrete pillars holding up the video board in deep left-center.
With Woo at 84 pitches, acting manager Manny Acta lifted him for lefty Caleb Ferguson.
The Rays grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Yandy Diaz worked a one-out walk, Brandon Lowe followed with a double and Caminero followed with a single past J.P. Crawford to drive in the first run. The Rays added another run on a fielder’s choice.
A 2-0 lead for Rays starter Drew Rasmussen seemed like plenty. The former Mount Spokane and Oregon State standout hadn’t allowed more than two earned runs in any of his nine previous starts. That included a start in Seattle where he threw six shutout innings, allowing four hits.
It looked like he might deliver a similar performance, holding the Mariners scoreless for the three innings and allowing one hit. But the Mariners broke through in the fourth inning.
Raleigh battled Rasmussen for eight pitches, fouling off three straight 3-2 pitches. And on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, smacked homer No. 51 on the season.
Raleigh ripped a low line drive over the wall in right field. Less than a minute later, Julio Rodriguez ambushed a first-pitch cutter, sending a deep fly-ball over the wall in right-center to make to back-to-back homers.
But the Mariners weren’t done peppering Rasmussen in the inning. With two outs, Jorge Polanco crushed a ball so far over the stands in right field that it carried out of the park for a solo homer.
Rasmussen made it through five innings, allowing the three runs on four hits with no walks and two strikeouts.