Cal Raleigh hit a key 3-run homer to back up George Kirby’s strong performance on the mound and the Mariners beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-2 this morning.

The Mariners’ bats were cold until the sixth inning, when Raleigh drove in Josh Rojas and Julio Rodriguez with his 14th home run of the season.

J.P. Crawford followed with a 2-run single in the seventh to add a pair of insurance runs to the board for the M’s.

George Kirby struck out 7 and gave up one run through six innings to improve to 7-5 on the season.

It was a critical win for Seattle, who had lost six of their last seven coming into today’s game.

Their lead in the AL West has now shrunk to 4.5 games over the second-place Astros, who have won their last seven.

The M’s have the day off tomorrow before returning home for the start of their three-game series against the Twins on Friday.

 

The M’s made a peculiar deal that sent a former Cy Young award winner out of Seattle on the cheap.

The Milwaukee Brewers sent cash to Seattle yesterday to acquire Dallas Keuchel.

The price was just $1.

The 36-year-old has spent all of this season in the minor leagues, going 7-4 with a 3.93 ERA for Triple-A Tacoma.

He’s well-known for his time on the Houston Astros, where he won five Gold Gloves and the AL Cy Young Award in 2015.

But he’s gone just 4-10 in the majors since 2022 while allowing nearly 9 runs per 9 innings.

 

A Mariners prospect put together a historic night yesterday.

First baseman Hogan Windish tied a team record by hitting four home runs while driving in all nine runs in Double-A Arkansas’s 9-0 win over Springfield.

Windish was a seventh-round pick in the 2022 draft and is not currently ranked in Seattle’s top 30 prospects according to MLB Pipeline.

 

And the Bellingham Bells got off to a rocky start in Edmonton last night.

The Bells fell to the Riverhawks 2-1 after a late rally by the Hawks saw them score their first two runs of the game in the bottom of the eighth inning to take the lead.

Edmonton added some space over the Bells in the league standings with their fifth-straight win. 

The Riverhawks now sit just half a game back of Wenatchee for first place in the North Division.

The Bells dropped to 2.5 games back from first with the loss.

They’ll look to make up that lost ground in Game Two tonight.

First pitch from Edmonton is at 6:05.