Eugenio Suarez hit a walk-off, three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates 6-3 on Sunday afternoon.
Julio Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh also homered for the Mariners, who improved to 6-1 on their 10-game homestand.
Mariners left-hander Tayler Saucedo (2-0) stranded three runners in the top of the 10th, striking out Ke’Bryan Hayes to end the threat.
With J.P. Crawford at second base to start the bottom of the inning, Ty France grounded out to the right side of the infield, sending Crawford to third. After Rodriguez struck out, Jarred Kelenic was walked intentionally and advanced to second on a defensive indifference. Suarez launched a 2-1 slider from Robert Stephenson (0-3) over the Pirates’ bullpen in left field and off the out-of-town scoreboard.
Rodriguez hit a towering solo homer to left field with two outs in the first inning off Pirates rookie right-hander Luis L. Ortiz to open the scoring.
Raleigh made it 2-0 with a shot to right leading off the bottom of the fourth.
The Pirates finally broke through against Mariners lefty Marco Gonzales in the top of the fifth. Ji Hwan Bae led off with a grounder through the right side of the infield and Chris Owings blooped a single down the right field line, sending Bae to third. Austin Hedges lined out to left, with Bae scoring on the sacrifice fly.
The Mariners got that run back in the bottom of the inning. Crawford led off by grounding a single into right. He took second on a wild pitch and scored on Kelenic’s two-out double to left.
Trailing 3-1, the Pirates tied it in the eighth. Andrew McCutchen led off with an infield single off reliever Justin Topa and took second on a throwing error by shortstop Crawford. Bryan Reynolds lined a run-scoring triple into the right field corner.
After Topa caught Connor Joe looking at a called third strike, the Mariners brought in closer Paul Sewald. Jack Suwinski walked on a wild 3-2 pitch that went all the way to the backstop, allowing Reynolds to tally the tying run.
Gonzales allowed one run on three hits in 5 2/3 innings, with three walks and four strikeouts.
Ortiz, making his eighth career major league start, gave up three runs on five hits in five innings. He walked four and fanned six.
–Field Level Media
