SEATTLE (AP) — Julio Rodríguez put a final exclamation point on his Rookie of the Year candidacy with his 28th home run, Ty France hit a game-ending single and the Seattle Mariners capped the regular season with a 5-4 win over the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday.
Rodríguez set a franchise record with his sixth leadoff homer this season and finished off his rookie campaign hitting .284 with 25 doubles, 75 RBIs and 25 stolen bases.
Mitch Haniger added a two-run homer and Luis Torrens — the winning pitcher in the first game of Tuesday’s doubleheader — hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning that gave the Mariners a 4-3 lead.
Seattle won it in the ninth after Gregory Soto (2-11) walked Curt Casali and his throwing error on J.P. Crawford’s grounder moved Casali into scoring position. Jarred Kelenic walked and France chopped a single down the right-field line.
Seattle (90-72) finished with at least 90 wins in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2000-03 when the Mariners won 91, 116, 93 and 93 games during that span. The next stop for the Mariners is the AL wild card series in Toronto beginning Friday.
Detroit finished the season 66-96, but was 11-5 over the final 16 games.
Seattle starter Marco Gonzales wore the brunt of trying to save as much of Seattle’s bullpen as possible for the upcoming matchup with Toronto. Not expected to be part of the roster for the wild-card series, Gonzales went seven innings and threw 106 pitches, allowing eight hits and struck out five. Riley Greene’s two-out RBI single in the seventh pulled Detroit even and cost Gonzales a chance at his 11th win.
Paul Sewald struck out the side in the eighth and Erik Swanson (3-2) struck out a pair in the ninth.
Tyler Alexander threw 5 2/3 innings and allowed seven hits and four runs for the Tigers.
IN ATTENDANCE
Seattle unofficially drew 2,287,465 fans for the season. The Mariners drew 1,791,109 in 2019, the last full season before COVID-19 restrictions impacted the past two seasons.
ONE-RUN WINS
The Mariners won 34 one-run games to lead the majors and became the first time to lead baseball in one-run victories in consecutive seasons since the Cincinnati Reds in 1897-98. Seattle won 33 one-run games last season.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Seattle placed LF Jesse Winker on the 10-day injured list due to a disc issue in his neck and will keep him out of the first two rounds of the playoffs. Winker had not played since Sunday’s loss to Oakland. He was slated to play in the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader but manager Scott Servais said he learned about midway through the first game that Winker was not going to be available.
Winker was a borderline to make Seattle’s postseason roster due to his defensive struggles. Winker hit just .219 and finished the regular season with an equal on-base and slugging percentage, both at .344. Winker did have the third-most walks in the American League with 84.
FIELD TRIP
Miguel Cabrera led a group of Tigers rookies and second year players on a field trip from the stadium to a nearby Starbucks in full uniform before the finale. The group of players walked about a half-mile to pick up their drinks.
UP NEXT
Tigers: Detroit will open spring training action on Feb. 25 against Philadelphia and the 2023 season on March 30 at Tampa Bay.
Mariners: Seattle will play its first playoff game in 21 years on Friday in Toronto.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
This news is republished from another source. You can check the original article here