Josh Naylor did everything a middle-of-the-order hitter can do on his own. It still wasn't enough. The Tampa Bay Rays scored two runs in the sixth inning and held on for a 3-2 win over the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TB | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 1 |
| SEA | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 1 |
Naylor went 3-for-4 with two home runs and two RBIs, a performance that stood as the game's individual highlight even in a loss. His first homer, a 367-foot shot to right center in the second inning, gave Seattle an early lead. His second, a 434-foot blast in the seventh, cut the deficit to one run but arrived too late to change the outcome. He finished a triple shy of the cycle's power categories, with a double mixed in among his three hits.
The turning point came in the sixth inning. With the score tied 1-1, Richie Palacios singled to right, and both Cedric Mullins and Chandler Simpson scored on the play, putting Tampa Bay ahead 3-1. That two-run swing accounted for the deficit Seattle would chase for the remainder of the game. Palacios finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Earlier, Victor Mesa Jr. had tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth with a 412-foot home run to right off George Kirby, erasing Naylor's second-inning shot.
Kirby worked five innings for Seattle, allowing one run on four hits with two walks and two strikeouts. The bullpen did its part behind him, covering four innings and allowing two runs across relief work, but it was Michael Rucker who took the loss after surrendering both sixth-inning runs on two hits in a single inning of work. Steven Matz picked up the win for Tampa Bay after two scoreless innings with two strikeouts, and Bryan Baker closed it out for his 34th save of the season, working around a hit in the ninth.
The result extended Tampa Bay's winning streak to five games, improving the Rays to 70-46 and keeping them atop their division. Seattle, meanwhile, saw its skid reach three straight losses, falling to 56-62. Matz, who struck out two in his start, sits at 987 career strikeouts, 13 shy of the 1,000 mark.