Rays lose Safeco opener on walk-off HR in 13th

June 2nd, 2018

SEATTLE -- For the second time this week the Tampa Bay Rays battled into the 13th inning. But unlike Monday's 1-0 win against Oakland, the Rays didn't leave extras with a victory Friday.
Tampa Bay rallied to tie the game in the ninth against MLB saves leader , but Mitch Haniger hit a walk-off home run to lead off the bottom of the 13th, handing the Rays a 4-3 loss against the Mariners at Safeco Field.
Right-hander 's 3-2 fastball to Haniger sailed over the right-center-field fence for his first-career walk-off hit, giving the Mariners their league-leading 17th one-run win of the season.
"Game on the line right there, make a pitch 3-2 and he put a good swing on it," Andriese said. "At that point you just got to battle each and every out. Runs are hard to come by at that point. I knew it was going to be the difference between one pitches or two pitches. That's what happened."

Diaz blew his third save of the season when drove home Joey Wendle with a one-out single to left in the ninth. Wendle walked to lead off the inning, stole second on a strikeout by , then advanced to third on a wild pitch before Duffy's third single of the night tied the score at 3-3.
Outfielders and hit back-to-back home runs with two outs in the fifth to break the shutout for Seattle starter Mike Leake, cutting the Tampa deficit to 3-2. The Rays, who fell to 2-3 in extras this season, mustered just one more hit over the next three frames before their ninth-inning rally.

Right-hander replaced Rays starter with one out in the second, and after leaving a runner stranded in his first frame of work, allowed six hits over the next two innings as Seattle built a 3-0 lead.
Left fielder Ben Gamel led off a two-run Seattle fourth with a triple past the diving glove of center fielder . Smith's missed attempt gave plenty of time for Gamel to record his second triple of the season, as the ball rolled all the way to the left-center-field wall.
Smith again just missed a diving catch two batters later as 's line drive to right-center field went past his outstretched glove and to the wall for a double. First baseman , who drove in Gamel with a single to center, advanced to third on the play and scored on a groundout to short from catcher .
"We want him to go after the ball and do everything to make plays," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "That's Mallex's M.O. Using his speed to get to some balls that a lot of other people can't get to."
drove in the game's first run against Pruitt with a two-out single to right in the third. Romo made his fifth start of the season as an "opener" and lasted 1 1/3 innings. After retiring the first four batters he faced, Romo walked Haniger, which ended Romo's night after 25 pitches.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Leake retired 12 Rays in a row before Gomez and Field broke the shutout with back-to-back solo home runs in the top of the 5th. Gomez blasted the first pitch he saw from Leake 378 feet into the bullpen in left field, his seventh long ball of the season. Field fell behind 1-2 before sending his sixth homer of the season to nearly the same spot.
"Obviously you want to get greedy and get some guys on base in those situations, but that got us back in the ball game," Cash said. "It was kind of a quiet night sitting at 3-0 for a while."
Gomez, who returned to the lineup after missing Thursday's 7-3 loss to Oakland with a sore hamstring, entered the game just 1-for-15 since returning from the 10-day DL on May 25.

HE SAID IT
"It's pretty frustrating. Look, we play close games and those things are magnified, we've learned that over many discussions talking about it. We've kind of got to go back to the drawing board on some of the baserunning." -- Cash, on Tampa Bay's outs on the basepaths. 
The Rays ran themselves out of multiple outs Friday, including twice in extra innings. Daniel Robertson was picked off on a throwback from catcher Mike Zunino with two outs in the 11th, and Wendle was doubled up by Dee Gordon after getting caught too far off first following a line drive from Ramos.

UP NEXT
Right-hander Chris Archer (3-3, 4.29 ERA) takes the mound against lefty (5-3, 3.60) as the Rays continue their three-game series against the Mariners at 10:10 p.m. ET Saturday. Archer pitched at least six innings in all six of his May starts, allowing two or fewer runs in all but one.