Willy Aybar hit a walk-off homer in the ninth, helping the Tampa Bay Rays to a 3-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Saturday.
Aybar capped the Rays’ rally by drilling the first pitch he saw from Jesus Colome (0-1) to right field for his fourth home run of the season.
Aybar’s blast made a winner out of Rafael Soriano (2-0), who threw a perfect ninth in relief of starter James Shields.
Mariners designated hitter Mike Sweeney homered for the third straight day and Ichiro Suzuki had a pair of hits, marking a career-best seven straight multi-hit games.
But Seattle’s bullpen wasted another solid start by Jason Vargas, as the Rays rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the eighth. B.J. Upton led off with an infield single and then stole second.
Dioner Navarro followed with a single and pinch-hitter Reid Brignac drilled an RBI single off Brandon League to center to cut the lead to 2-1. After a sacrifice and an intentional walk to Carl Crawford, Ben Zobrist tied the game at 2-2 with a sacrifice fly off Sean White.
The Rays’ rally ruined a stellar performance by Vargas, who retired the first 12 hitters he faced and allowed two runs and four hits in seven-plus innings. He struck out two and walked two.
Shields matched Vargas pitch-for-pitch, allowing just two runs and six hits in eight innings with 10 strikeouts. He did not walk a batter.
Seattle | Tampa Bay | |
Jason Vargas | Player | James Shields |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
7.0 | IP | 8.0 |
2 | Strikeouts | 10 |
4 | Hits | 6 |
2.57 | ERA | 2.25 |
Seattle | Tampa Bay | |
Mike Sweeney | Player | Reid Brignac |
2 | Hits | 1 |
1 | RBI | 1 |
1 | HR | 0 |
5 | TB | 1 |
.500 | Avg | 1.000 |