Toronto, ON – Erasmo Ramirez worked seven effective innings Tuesday and the Seattle Mariners snuck past the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-3, in the opener of a three-game series at Rogers Centre.
Ramirez (1-2) allowed two runs on six hits and a walk with six strikeouts to snap a string of three consecutive no-decisions. Tom Wilhelmsen collected his 25th save of the season with a scoreless ninth inning.
"He pitched a fantastic ball game tonight," Seattle manager Eric Wedge said of his starter. "That's a good hitting ball club over there and Erasmo did a great job."
Kyle Seager went 3-for-5 with a key solo home run and an RBI single, while Michael Saunders added an RBI single among his two hits for the Mariners, who snapped a three-game skid.
Colby Rasmus, Moises Sierra and Yunel Escobar drove in runs for the Blue Jays, who had their four-game winning streak snapped.
Brandon Morrow (8-6) was tagged for four runs on 11 hits and a walk over 4 2/3 innings.
"They were just attacking early and did a good job of putting the bat on the ball," Morrow said of the M's. "The whole time I just kind of felt out of sync with my body."
Seattle jumped on top early, plating a pair of runs in its first at-bat. Dustin Ackley started the game with a double and Franklin Gutierrez singled before Seager knocked in Ackley with a base hit to left. Jesus Montero walked two batters later to load the bases with one out and Saunders laced a single to left, scoring Gutierrez.
Rasmus beat out an infield single in the Toronto first and Adam Lind singled to left with two outs. Escobar roped a single back up the middle to score Rasmus, cutting the deficit in half.
Seager laced a one-out double to left in the third and scored on a base hit up the middle by John Jaso, extending the Seattle lead to 3-1.
A sacrifice fly by Rasmus in the home portion of the inning scored Anthony Gose.
The M's widened the lead to two when Seager led off the fifth by crushing a fastball from Morrow over the wall in right field.
Rasmus ripped a ground-rule double over the wall in right to begin the Toronto eighth and went to third on a flyout by Edwin Encarnacion. A pinch-hitting Sierra then drove home Rasmus with a groundout.
Wilhelmsen allowed Rajai Davis to reach in the ninth with a two-out infield single, but came back to induce a game-ending groundout from Gose.
Game Notes
Entering play on Tuesday, the M's had lost 30 of their last 41 games in Toronto dating back to the 2004 season ... Montero extended his career-best hitting streak to nine games ... Seager has recorded 57 of his team-leading 81 RBI on the road ... The Blue Jays went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left six on base.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.