Homers by Robles, Rodríguez and Arozarena lead Castillo and Mariners past Rays 6-2

SEATTLE (AP) — Victor Robles and Julio Rodríguez each hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning as the Seattle Mariners beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-2 on Wednesday.

Randy Arozarena went deep against his former team again and Luis Castillo pitched 5 2/3 solid innings to help the Mariners win two of three in the series. Seattle stayed 3 1/2 games back of first-place Houston in the AL West.

It’s the first time the Mariners have won consecutive series since mid-June, when they took three of four games from the Chicago White Sox and followed that with a three-game sweep of the Texas Rangers.

Robles and Rodríguez both connected with two outs against lefty reliever Tyler Alexander (5-4), giving the struggling Mariners offense a much-needed boost.

“The ball that Robles hit, tip your cap,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “It's above the zone — I think that was the intent behind the pitch — but Robles got the barrel to it and drove it out for a big home run.”

J.P. Crawford then walked and Rodríguez hit one 356 feet into Edgar’s Cantina in left field for his first homer since July 20.

Rodríguez also had a single in the first inning and made a diving catch in center field. He hit a hard line drive that Rays first baseman Yandy Díaz caught for an out.

“It feels great just to be able to produce and like, hit some balls hard and have good at-bats,” Rodríguez said. “Once you are working with something and you see it play out in the game, it makes you feel really good because it shows you that you are kind of on the right track and motivates you to continue to work at it.”

Rodríguez had struggled at the plate over the past week, but his homer was a reminder of how valuable he can be to the Mariners' lineup.

“Offense is very contagious,” manager Dan Wilson said. “When he’s up there, when they’re all up there doing what they do, especially offensively, I think it just trickles down. And we’re excited. This is a good one to build on, another good series win.”

Josh Lowe put the Rays ahead in the second with a solo homer, but the Mariners tied it in the bottom half when Arozarena scored on Luke Raley's sacrifice fly against opener Drew Rasmussen.

Castillo (11-12) settled in after Lowe's homer and didn’t allow another hit until the fifth. He was pulled in favor of Austin Voth after giving up Dylan Carlson's RBI single in the sixth. The right-hander permitted two runs and six hits with two walks and four strikeouts, throwing his fastball 67% of the time.

“We picked that up during the game, basically from the first inning,” Castillo said. “We realized how effective it was being, and the catcher and I made the game plan that it was being effective, so why not keep throwing it? I think that’s why it was a main reason for the results that we got today.”

Arozarena added a solo homer in the eighth, his second longball of the series. The 2021 AL Rookie of the Year spent the past 4 1/2 seasons with the Rays before they traded him to Seattle late last month.

Voth and Collin Snider combined for 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, and Andrés Muñoz pitched a perfect ninth with two strikeouts.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Mariners: Crawford (broken right hand) was reinstated from the injured list, and OF Dominic Canzone was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma.

UP NEXT

Rays: RHP Taj Bradley (6-8, 3.77 ERA) pitches Friday night at home against San Diego.

Mariners: RHP George Kirby (9-10, 3.48) starts Friday night at the Los Angeles Angels.

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A previous version of this story was corrected to remove a reference to Muñoz earning a save.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Shane Lantz, The Associated Press