Cal Raleigh’s walk-off single in the ninth inning gave the Seattle Mariners a 2-1 victory against the visiting New York Yankees on Monday night in the opener of a three-game series.
Leo Rivas led off the bottom of the ninth by grounding a single to right off Paul Blackburn (0-1). With one out, Brendan Donovan grounded a single to center to send Rivas to third. Raleigh, who entered the game in the seventh inning as the designated hitter, grounded a single down the right-field line to win it.
Mariners reliever Matt Brash (1-0) pitched a scoreless inning for the victory.
The Mariners opened the scoring in the second inning off Yankees starter Ryan Weathers. Randy Arozarena led off by grounding a single into center field and Mitch Garver drew a 10-pitch walk. With two outs, Cole Young hit a broken-bat single down the right-field line to plate Arozarena.
The Yankees tied it with an unearned run in the seventh. Ben Rice greeted reliever Jose A. Ferrer with a sharp ground-ball single to right and took second on a wild pitch. Giancarlo Stanton hit a ball off the glove of Donovan at third base for an error, with Rice staying at second. Jazz Chisholm Jr. grounded into a forceout, sending Rice to third.
The Yankees sent up Amed Rosario to pinch-hit for Ryan McMahon, with the Mariners countering with right-hander Eduard Bazardo. Rosario lifted a sacrifice fly to deep center to even the score at 1-1.
The Mariners threatened in the bottom of the inning against Brent Headrick. With one out, Young doubled to right — his third hit of the game — and Donovan lined a single to left, with Young stopping at third. Headrick struck out Raleigh and Camilo Doval came on to get Julio Rodriguez to bounce out to second to end the inning.
Mariners starter Luis Castillo pitched six scoreless innings.
The right-hander allowed just two hits — a one-out single by Stanton in the fourth that Donovan lost in the lights, with the ball falling just behind him on the edge of the outfield grass, and a two-out infield single by Jose Caballero in the fifth on a tapper down the third-base line. Castillo walked two and struck out seven. That included fanning Aaron Judge on a check swing with two outs in the sixth for Castillo’s 1,500th career strikeout.
Weathers went 4 1/3 innings and allowed one run on four hits in his Yankees debut. The left-hander, acquired in an offseason trade with Miami, walked two and struck out seven.
