Ty France had three hits, including a double and home run, and drove in three runs and Chris Flexen earned his 10th victory of the season as the Seattle Mariners defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 8-2 Monday night in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Randy Arozarena hit his 15th homer of the season for the Rays, who had a four-game winning streak snapped.
The Mariners improved to 5-0 against Tampa Bay this season. Seattle swept a four-game series against the Rays at home June 17-20.
Flexen (10-5), who was beaten in his previous two starts, went 6 2/3 innings and allowed two runs on seven hits. The right-hander walked two and struck out six.
Rays right-hander Michael Wacha (2-3) gave up six runs on eight hits in four innings, with three walks and three strikeouts.
The Mariners broke a scoreless tie in the third inning with five runs. J.P. Crawford led off with a walk and took second on a wild pitch. Mitch Haniger's infield single advanced the runner to third, and Crawford scored on Kyle Seager's line-drive single to right.
France then lined a single to right, scoring Haniger and sending Seager to third. A walk to Abraham Toro loaded the bases, and Jake Fraley, who was activated from the injured list earlier in the day, grounded a two-run single to right. Luis Torrens grounded into a force play to bring home the final run of the inning.
The Mariners made it 6-0 in the fourth. Crawford led off with a single to left, and Haniger followed with a walk. Seager grounded into a double play, but France lined a run-scoring double to center on the next pitch.
The Rays got on the board with two outs in the bottom of the inning on Arozarena's solo shot over the center field fence.
Tampa Bay also scored in the fifth as Kevin Kiermaier led off with a triple and scored an out later on Brandon Lowe's groundout.
France homered to left leading off seventh. An out later, Fraley walked, stole second and scored on Jarred Kelenic's two-out single to right to give the Mariners an 8-2 advantage.
--Field Level Media
Seattle | Tampa Bay | |
Chris Flexen | Player | Michael Wacha |
Win | W/L | Loss |
6.2 | IP | 4.0 |
6 | Strikeouts | 3 |
7 | Hits | 9 |
2.70 | ERA | 13.50 |
Seattle | Tampa Bay | |
Ty France | Player | Randy Arozarena |
3 | Hits | 2 |
3 | RBI | 1 |
1 | HR | 1 |
7 | TB | 5 |
.600 | Avg | .667 |