Seattle Mariners Find Groove in 7-3 Win Against Baltimore Orioles on Thursday
SEATTLE — T-Mobile Park had its firework show on Wednesday, but the Seattle Mariners waited until the Fourth of July was officially here on Thursday to start lighting it up. The Mariners beat the Baltimore Orioles 7-3 on Thursday behind a monster five-run rally in the seventh inning.
For the early part of Thursday, it looked it would be more of the same for the M's offense.
Seattle went down in order in three of the first four innings and left a runner stranded at second base in the other. The M's trailed 2-0 after four.
Then, a switch flipped — courtesy of Julio Rodriguez.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Rodriguez led off the inning with a solo home run to left-center field. Then, the Mariners got an additional run out of a bases loaded situation after Ty France scored on a 6-4-3 double play off the bat of Ryan Bliss.
.@JRODshow44 brought some fireworks 🎆 pic.twitter.com/ef9KZWfOlp
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) July 4, 2024
Turns out, the fifth inning was just the warm-up act.
Rodriguez again led off in the bottom of the seventh inning. He hit a double. France was walked, Rodriguez stole third and Haniger was walked. Bases loaded once again.
With two outs and the score still knotted at 2-2, Seattle shortstop JP Crawford hit a 3-run double that went all the way to the center field wall, ironically in front of the "J-Rod Squad" section. That put the Mariners up 5-2.
That's @jp_crawford's music! 🔱 pic.twitter.com/MjMtc8O9hb
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) July 4, 2024
It was Crawford's 12th double of the year. He finished the game 2-for-4 and bumped his batting average up to .212 and his RBI total to 28.
But the the fireworks show still had a bit left. Designated hitter Mitch Garver, who got his first start on Thursday since suffering a wrist contusion in a game June 30 against the Minnesota Twins, brought Crawford home with a two-run home run that put Seattle up 7-2.
💥 BOOM 💥 pic.twitter.com/N8sYSB0N0R
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) July 4, 2024
It was Garver's 11th home run of the season — the second most on the team.
"We were locked in today," Crawford said in a postgame interview on Thursday. "We finally got the big hits with runners in scoring position. And especially late in the game, it's pretty big."
Seattle will now turn to a new three-game series starting Friday against the Toronto Blue Jays, who are just coming off a series loss against the Mariners' American League West rivals, the Houston Astros.
Seattle's win improves its record to 48-41. It has a two-game division lead over Houston.
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