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Mariners beat Pirates and prevent first home win in series
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Mariners beat Pirates and prevent first home win in series

After ending a 10-game losing streak, the Pittsburgh Pirates won the first two games of their series against the Seattle Mariners and aimed for their third sweep of the season and their first at home.

But the pirates’ inability to eliminate their opponents remained.

Cal Raleigh, Josh Rojas and Dominic Canzone hit two home runs with one strike each as the Mariners crushed the Pirates 10-3 in front of 24,903 spectators at PNC Park on Sunday afternoon.

The loss ended the momentum the Pirates (58-65) had built over the weekend as they headed into a three-game series at the reigning World Series champion Texas Rangers.

“Obviously, it wasn’t the ending we wanted, but we have to make the best of it and that’s what we’re going to do going forward,” said Pirates catcher Joey Bart, who hit his career-high 12th home run of the season. “If you take those 10 days out, everyone is feeling high and mighty and we’ve had a lot of good series wins and the baseball has shown itself. We struggled a little bit, but you have to put that behind you and work forward. This series here was good to win two out of three and try to get some momentum going.”

After losing the first two games of the weekend series, the Mariners (64-61) responded with 13 hits, matching their total from the previous two games, and scored seven runs on nine hits, including two home runs, in four innings against Pirates starter Jake Woodford.

“I fell behind a little bit today, which gave me a bad reputation,” said Woodford, who fell to 0-5 overall and 0-3 with the Pirates. “It’s hard to pitch when you’re behind. I thought we made some good adjustments, but it was one of those days where it didn’t go the way I wanted it to.”

Mariners starter George Kirby (9-9) allowed two runs on four hits and two walks with five strikeouts in six innings. Kirby allowed just two hits in five scoreless innings before allowing the home run to Bart.

Raleigh followed a single by Julio Rodriguez by slamming Woodford’s 2-2 sweeper 367 feet into right field for his 27th home run and putting Seattle up 2-0 in the first inning. The Mariners got singles from Luke Raley and Justin Turner, and both got into scoring position on a wild pitch before Woodford got Canzone to hit a comebacker to end the inning.

In pouring rain, the Mariners scored two more runs in the second inning. Rojas hit a single, Leo Rivas walked and Victor Robles brought home both runs with a line-drive double to left to make it 4-0. Robles got to third base on a throwing error by Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz, his 24th of the season.

Another error played a big role in the three-run fourth inning. After Rojas hit a 2-2 sinker for a home run to first, Rivas and Robles followed with back-to-back singles. Then Rodriguez hit a grounder to third for a supposed double play, but Jared Triolo threw Isiah Kiner-Falefa too far at second, allowing Rivas to score and Robles to reach third base. Luke Fraley’s sacrifice fly to center brought Robles home for a 7-0 lead.

Ryder Ryan replaced Woodford in the fifth inning, but allowed another home run on a 2-2 slider to Canzone, who hit a 416-foot hit to center to give the Mariners an eight-run lead.

The Pirates finally scored in the sixth inning when Cruz hit a single during a shift and Bart hit an 0-1 fastball up the middle and a 430-foot shot to right-center field to cut the gap to 8-2.

But the Mariners got two more runs off Ryan in the seventh inning when Raley hit a single and scored when Canzone ran into a double play with the bases loaded, and pinch runner Dylan Moore scored on a single by Rivas. Ben Heller walked Robles to reload the bases, but got Rodriguez to hit a flyout to center to end the inning.

Alika Williams came in as a pinch hitter for Kiner-Falefa and opened the eighth with a double to the right corner. She then moved to third base on a fielder’s decision by Cruz and scored on a passed ball by Raleigh to cut the score to 10-3.

“We won two of three games against the best starting pitchers in baseball,” Shelton said. “Today was obviously not our day. But coming back from the road trip and winning two of three games was important for us. I’m happy with our response after the trip.”

Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter who covers the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball, and was a sports columnist for 10 years. Reach him at [email protected].

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