Mariners nip Blue Jays
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}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.