BOSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The Seattle Mariners scored twice in the first two innings and held on to post their second straight win, beating the host Boston Red Sox 4-3 on Thursday afternoon.
Mitch Garver socked a two-RBI double while Leo Rivas and J.P. Crawford had two hits apiece for the Mariners, supporting a six-inning effort from starter Bryan Woo (3-1). The right-hander struck out eight while allowing just two runs, three hits and one walk.
Alex Bregman went 2-for-3 with a homer and two RBIs for Boston, which managed just one hit off four Seattle relievers and struck out a total of 12 times. Andres Munoz recorded his ninth save, working around a two-out walk to Triston Casas to strike out two in the ninth.
Boston ace Garrett Crochet (2-2) struck out nine over five innings but was charged with four runs on five hits and issued a career-high five walks. The left-hander threw 110 pitches.
The Mariners scored in the first inning for the fourth straight game as Garver knocked a two-out, two-run double to deep center that Boston’s Kristian Campbell misplayed off the Green Monster.
Bregman got the home team’s offense going with a solo homer out to left-center, making it a 2-1 game after the bottom of the first frame.
Seattle continued to threaten against Crochet in the second, loading the bases on a walk to Rivas sandwiched between hits by Ben Williamson and Crawford — the trio that combined for seven hits in an 8-5 Wednesday win. The next two batters brought home runs, as Dylan Moore hit a sacrifice fly and Julio Rodriguez registered an RBI groundout.
The Red Sox got a run closer when Jarren Duran hit a one-out double and scored on Bregman’s line-drive single into the left-field corner in the third. Woo then struck out two in a 1-2-3 fourth and did not allow a hit across his final three innings.
Crochet did not allow a run after the second, but he labored while stranding multiple runners in the fourth and fifth. Boston relievers Greg Weissert and Liam Hendriks worked around traffic in their innings, with Hendriks striking out Crawford to escape the seventh frame when he walked three — two after inducing a double play — and allowed a hit to Rivas.
After Bregman’s second RBI, the Red Sox were hitless until Carlos Narvaez led off the eighth with a solo homer out past the right-field foul pole — the first run allowed by Mariners reliever Gabe Speier all season.
Trent Thornton followed Speier with two outs, and second baseman Rivas tracked down a Bregman pop fly in shallow center to end the inning.
–Field Level Media