The Sports Xchange
Jun 4, 2017
SEATTLE -- Mike Zunino hit a grand slam that nearly left Safeco Field and drove in a career-best seven runs as the Seattle Mariners defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 9-2 Saturday night.
Zunino's fifth-inning blast went 441 feet down the left-field line and landed three rows from the top of the second deck. It gave the Mariners grand slams in back-to-back games -- Taylor Motter hit one against his former team in the first inning Friday.
Seattle won for the sixth time in its past seven games.
Zunino hit a two-run double in the second inning, a run-scoring single in the fourth and his grand slam in the fifth to make it 9-1.
Zunino was demoted to Triple-A Tacoma on May 5 after batting .167 with no homers and two RBIs in his first 24 games of the season.
He came into the game batting .184 with one homer and five RBIs. He raised his average to .200 with his single in the fourth.
Nelson Cruz homered in the fifth -- his 100th as a Mariner and on his bobblehead night.
The Rays' Corey Dickerson opened the game with a home run off Sam Gaviglio. The homer, on a 1-1 count, just cleared the fence in right field. It was Dickerson's 13th home run of the season and sixth leading off.
That was the only run Gaviglio allowed in his five innings. Gaviglio, making his fourth career start, gave up four hits, didn't walk a batter and struck out six.
Seattle got 14 hits off Rays starter Alex Cobb in five innings. All nine runs against the right-hander were earned. He walked two and struck out three.
The Mariners took the lead with three runs in the second. Cruz led off by scorching a ball down the third-base line past Evan Longoria for a double. Cruz moved to third on a fly out to the right-field wall by Kyle Seager and scored on Danny Valencia's line-drive single to left-center field.
Jarrod Dyson hit a two-out single to right field and Zunino followed with a two-run double into the gap in right-center. The Mariners nearly had one more run, but Zunino was thrown out at the plate by Rays outfielder Colby Rasmus on Ben Gamel's single to left to end the inning.
The Mariners made it 4-1 in the fourth as Valencia and Motter led off with singles and one out later, Zunino delivered a run-scoring single. Seattle also had a runner thrown out at the plate in that inning, as Motter was caught trying to score on a wild pitch.
NOTES: Tampa Bay 3B Evan Longoria left the game early for the second consecutive night. Longoria was lifted Friday because of stiffness in his neck. He was 3-for-3 Saturday before exiting with the Rays trailing by eight runs. ... Rays C Derek Norris was replaced in the middle of the eighth after hobbling off following an at-bat in the top of the inning. ... Rays 1B Logan Morrison hit the 100th homer of his career in the ninth inning off Seattle's Edwin Diaz. ... Mariners 1B Danny Valencia went 4-for-4 and RF Ben Gamel was 3-for-4 with a walk. ... Rays RHP Erasmo Ramirez (3-0, 3.66 ERA) is scheduled to face M's LHP Ariel Miranda (5-2, 4.17) in Sunday's finale of the three-game series.