Seattle — It ended up being Randy Arozarena night at T-Mobile Park Wednesday.
The dynamic Seattle outfielder stole a three-run home run in the fourth inning then delivered a clutch two-out, two-strike double in the sixth kept the inning alive for Julio Rodriguez’s three-run homer that broke a scoreless tie and sent the Mariners to a 4-2 win.
Benches, bullpens clear in brief skirmish between Tigers-Mariners
The Tigers’ four-game winning streak was snapped, as was their six-game run of scoring eight or more runs.
Arozarena’s knock foiled manager AJ Hinch’s bullpen strategy.
Lefty Tyler Holton had dispatched six straight Mariners. But with the right-handed hitting Arozarena coming up, Hinch went to right-hander Brenan Hanifee. Hanifee has been more vulnerable against right-handers this season (.295 in the short sample) but Arozarena was hitless against him in four at-bats.
Hanifee got quickly ahead 0-2, but after missing with a slider, he tried to come inside with a 95-mph sinker and Arozarena slashed it into the corner in left for a double.
BOX SCORE: Mariners 4, Tigers 2
That was absolutely the worst-case scenario for the Tigers. Next up was lefty Dominic Canzone. Hinch had the choice between Canzone (a rock) and Mariners’ All-Star, but right-hand hitting Rodriguez (hard place).
With baseball’s three-batter rule, he had to ride with Hanifee.
Left-handed hitters have an .888 OPS against Hanifee. Rodriguez’s OPS against right-handers is .694.
Hinch gave Canzone the free pass and Rodriguez slugged a first-pitch sinker (97 mph) on a line into the right-field seats.
That was Arozarena’s offensive game-changer.
His defensive game-changer came in the fourth.
First, he threw out Gleyber Torres, who mistakenly tried to go first to third on a single to left by Dillon Dingler.
Then, with Dingler and Riley Greene on base, Arozarena leaped above the wall and snared what looked like a three-run homer slugged by Colt Keith.
That was the only threat the Tigers mounted against Mariners’ starter Bryan Woo, despite the fact that he hit three batters and walked another. The back-to-back singles by Torres and Dingler, plus a single by Max Clark in the seventh, were the lone hits against Woo in seven innings.
But there was some drama in the eighth, and the hit-batsmen played a role in it.
Both benches and bullpens emptied, but not much came of it other than a lot of jawing the ejections of Mariners’ manager Dan Wilson and pitcher Gabe Speier.
Woo hit three Tigers, though all were on breaking balls that got away. Two of them nicked the Tigers hitters. In the bottom of the seventh, Tigers’ lefty reliever Enmanuel De Jesus drilled Cal Raleigh with a 95-mph fastball.
The Mariners apparently took it as retaliation. Because in the top of the eighth, Speier threw twice at Torres. The first one missed. The second one hit him.
Torres looked out at Speier as the Tigers’ players started streaming out of the dugout.
Things separated quickly but after the umpires convened, Speier was ejected. Wilson stormed out of the dugout, complaining about the umpires not issuing a warning after the first pitch at Torres.
He, too, was ejected.
Dingler greeted reliever Eduard Bazardo with a two-run homer (his 25th) to make it a 3-2 game. But Mariners’ Colt Emerson responded in the bottom of the eighth with a solo homer.
This story will be updated.
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers’ four-game win streak ends with 4-2 loss to Mariners
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