KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Cal Raleigh homered and drove in three runs as the Seattle Mariners rallied for a 6-5 win over the Kansas City Royals on Saturday night.
The Mariners have won two of three after dropping five of six as they added to their lead over the Baltimore Orioles for the third and final wild-card spot, moving four games ahead with 11 to play as the Orioles fell to Houston Saturday. Seattle also closed to a half-game behind Tampa Bay, which lost to Toronto.
With one out in the ninth, Jarred Kelenic and Jesse Winker singled ahead of Raleigh’s tiebreaking RBI double off Brad Keller (6-14). Raleigh had tied the score 5-5 as a pinch-hitter with his 25th homer, a two-run shot to start the sixth inning.
Raleigh has homered in consecutive games for the first time in his career and has six home runs and 14 RBI in 16 September games.
Paul Sewald (5-4) earned the victory with two scoreless innings and Andres Munoz worked the ninth for his fourth save.
The loss ended the Royals’ season-best four-game win streak.