Seattle Mariners Cap Off 'Ichiro Night' With 7-4 Win Against Tampa Bay Rays
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SEATTLE — In a pregame ceremony Saturday at T-Mobile Park, Ichiro Suzuki, who just had his No. 51 retired by the Seattle Mariners, turned to the current team and expressed his confidence the squad could "seize the moment."
That's exactly what the Mariners did in a 7-4 win against the Tampa Bay Rays that followed Suzuki's jersey retirement.
Six of those runs came from the two modern faces of the franchise — center fielder Julio Rodriguez and catcher Cal Raleigh.
In front of a sellout crowd of 45,249 people, Julio Rodriguez homered twice and Cal Raleigh hit his major league-leading 44th homer of the season.
Saturday marked Seattle's sixth-straight win and third-straight series victory. It improved its overall record to 65-53. The Mariners are a half-game behind the Houston Astros for first place in the American League West and tied with the Boston Red Sox for the top AL Wild Card spot.
"It just shows the quality of our team," Rodriguez said in a postgame interview. "We can beat you many different ways. We have the means to just get it done. At the end of the day, that's all that matters. How we do it, how the game plays out, it's always gonna be different. And I feel like we got the team to respond in all those situations."
Rodriguez's first homer was a two-run shot to, appropriately, the "J-Rod Squad" section in center field. His blast gave Seattle a 2-1 lead. The M's had the advantage for the rest of the game after Rodriguez's first homer.
💥 Yes Fly Zone 💥 pic.twitter.com/DjgbVbDIJr
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 10, 2025
Raleigh bolstered the Mariners' lead further with a three-run, opposite-field blast to left field in the bottom of the third. Raleigh's homer gave him 96 RBIs on the season, which also leads the majors.
Raleigh homered on the first pitch he saw in the at-bat. Rodriguez followed with a solo shot on the first pitch he saw. Rodriguez's second homer gave Seattle a 6-1 lead through three innings.
No. 4️⃣4️⃣ for No. 2️⃣9️⃣ pic.twitter.com/4j2YIzzcup
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 10, 2025
Mariners starting pitcher Logan Evans stopped the Rays from chipping away at the early advantage. When he was pulled in the sixth, he had struck out four, walked three and allowed one earned run on three hits (one home run). The one run allowed by Evans was a solo home run hit by Brandon Lowe in the top of the first.
Evans attacked the edge of the strike zone for most of the night and relied on his two-seam fastball (sinker) to get ahead of batters.
"I feel like I've been working on it for a while now. Just commanding every pitch," Evans said after the game. "I felt like I was able to do that. I've talked about this in the past, but getting ahead and winning those 1-1 counts. I felt like I really did that and they just happened to be on the edge. I don't know if I was 100% meaning to do it every single pitch, but there were times that bringing a two-seam back or landing a sweeper on the outer half was working for me."
When Evans was pulled, Tampa Bay had runners on the corners with one out in the top of the sixth. Junior Caminero hit a three-run homer to center field off reliever Caleb Ferguson.
Caminero's blast gave Evans three earned runs for the game and was the first run allowed by Ferguson since Seattle traded for him. It cut the M's advantage to 6-4.
Junior Caminero annihilates this pitch and makes things interesting 👀 pic.twitter.com/eqqmTd7FFY
— MLB (@MLB) August 10, 2025
Seattle second baseman Cole Young, who went 0-for-0 with four walks, scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the sixth for the eventual final of 7-4.
Relievers Eduard Bazardo and Gabe Speier faced the minimum amount of batters in the seventh and eighth inning and set up All-Star closer Andres Munoz for a save opportunity in the top of the ninth.
With two outs and runners on first and second, Munoz struck out Rays center fielder Tristan Peters on three pitches to earn his 27th save of the season in 33 opportunities.
"Some pretty cool stuff happening tonight," M's manager Dan Wilson said in a postgame interview. "And I thought the crowd was awesome again. Full house, something special about playing in front of a sellout like that. I think it was just a ton of awesome energy in the ballpark tonight."
The Mariners will try and earn their second consecutive sweep in the series finale at 1:10 p.m. PT on Sunday. Bryan Woo will start for Seattle and Adrian Houser will start for Tampa Bay.
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WATCH: MARINERS REVEAL RETIRED NUMBER PLAQUE FOR ICHIRO SUZUKI: The Mariners retired the 2025 Hall of Fame inductee's number in a pregame ceremony Saturday. CLICK HERE
MARINERS VETERAN REFLECTS ON BEING TEAMMATES WITH ICHIRO SUZUKI: Mariners first baseman Donovan Solano shared a clubhouse with Ichiro Suzuki while with the Miami Marlins and he spoke as Ichiro gets set to have his No. 51 retired by the organization. CLICK HERE
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