Monday, 3 a.m.
With the winning run on third, the Seattle Mariners chose to walk the red-hot Manny Margot.
With the winning run on third, the Tampa Bay Rays chose not to walk Ty France.
A few moments later, the Mariners were walking off a 2-1 comeback win over the Rays in 10 innings, salvaging one game of their four-game series against the Rays.
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For Tampa Bay, most of the checks were marked as they attempted to win their seventh straight game. They got good pitching, good defense and Margot powering the team to a lead. But the Mariners came back to win it, tying it with one out in the ninth and winning in extra innings
Margot had hit his third home run in three games in the eighth to give the Rays a 1-0 lead. But Abraham Toro took Andrew Kittredge deep to tie things in the ninth.
The Rays didn't get their "ghost runner" in, with Yandy Diaz looking at a third strike with runners on the corners in the 10th. France, with one out, hit a deep single to left to drive in the winning run.
The Mariners got their ghost runner to third in the 10th. The Rays walked Adam Frazier, but chose not to walk France to load the bases. France is hitting .319, but on-deck hitter Julio Rodriguez is hitting just .235.
The Rays scored just one run on five hits as young George Kirby held the team to four hits over six innings. In all, the Rays had only five hits.
“We played really good baseball here over the last few days, even today," said Rays' manager Kevin Cash. "One run doesn’t generally get it done. We know that. But saying that, their guy was just outstanding. What a day for him. Yarbs (Ryan Yarbrough) was very encouraging. That was the highlight of our day."
The Rays will now travel to Anaheim to start a series with the Angels. Noah Syndergaard will start for Anaheim today. The Rays will counter with an opener.