Cal Raleigh homers and hits sacrifice fly as Mariners beat Athletics 6-4
AP Baseball Writer
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Cal Raleigh hit a two-run homer in the first inning and added a sacrifice fly in the fifth, Julio Rodríguez also connected, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Athletics 6-4 on Thursday in their final scheduled visit to the Oakland Coliseum.
Luke Raley added a two-run shot in the ninth for key insurance as the Mariners closed within 4 1/2 games of the Houston Astros in the American League West standings.
Bryan Woo (7-2) struck out six and didn’t walk a batter over five innings to win in his native Bay Area a 10-minute drive from where he grew up in Alameda.
Woo became emotional pondering how he will be the pitcher of record for Seattle’s final win at this ballpark where he has so many special memories of attending games during his youth. The A’s will play their home games for the 2025-27 seasons in Sacramento before moving to Las Vegas.
“That’s pretty crazy, honestly,” Woo said. “Obviously I’ve come to more games here than anywhere else in the world, anywhere else in my life. I can’t even wrap my mind around that right now. It’s sad, it’s crazy, it’s a lot of emotions. It’s wild.”
The right-hander has victories in his last two decisions, against the A’s and San Francisco. He allowed two runs on eight hits and has five or more strikeouts in six of his last seven outings.
Raleigh, who also hit a two-run, first-inning homer on Monday in the series opener, is up to 29 home runs, moving him one away from his career-best total of 30 accomplished last year. Raleigh would become the 12th catcher in major league history with multiple 30-homer seasons, and his 87 RBIs are most in franchise history by a catcher over one season ahead of manager Dan Wilson’s 83 in 1996.
The home run for Rodríguez in the third was his 14th of the year for Seattle, which was coming off a 16-3 victory Wednesday night.
“Offensively did a lot of great things again,” Wilson said. “A couple of home runs really picked us up big time.”
Oakland’s Seth Brown hit a sacrifice fly in the third and Brent Rooker homered twice to boost his career-high total to 35. He hit his 34th homer in the fifth then No. 35 in the ninth for the A’s, who have cleared the fences 22 times in their last 10 games and have 181 home runs overall.
“Similar to last year, my homers always tend to come in bunches,” Rooker said. “That’s been a constant throughout my entire career. What I’ve done a better job of this year is in between those spurts of slugging, I’ve done a good job of being able to piece base hits together and take some walks.”
A’s starter Joey Estes (6-7), who has lost three of his last four decisions, allowed four runs on six hits over four innings before manager Mark Kotsay turned to his bullpen.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Athletics: INF Tyler Soderstrom (wrist) was scheduled to begin a rehab assignment on Thursday with Triple-A Las Vegas.
UP NEXT
Seattle travels to St. Louis for a three-game series with RHP Bryce Miller (10-8, 3.30 ERA) pitching Game 1.
The A’s send RHP Mitch Spence (7-9, 4.50) to the mound for the opener of a weekend series at home against Detroit.
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