Cal Raleigh goes deep twice as Mariners hit 4 homers to shut out Pirates, end winning streak

The Pittsburgh Pirates arrived in Seattle as the hottest team in baseball, riding a six-game winning streak that included three consecutive shutouts in a historic homestand.

They ran into the game’s hottest home run hitter.

Cal Raleigh crushed two homers to increase his major-league-leading total to a career-best 35, as the Mariners went deep to score all of their runs in a 6-0 win over the Pirates on Thursday afternoon at T-Mobile Park.

The Mariners scored more runs in one game than the Pirates had allowed in their previous six. The Pirates outscored the New York Mets, 37-4, and the St. Louis Cardinals, 13-0, at PNC Park.

Pirates left-hander Bailey Falter (6-4) allowed four runs (three earned) on three hits — all homers — with four strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings to suffer his first loss since April 27.

“Raleigh is having a heck of a year and got him twice,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “All in all, I thought (Falter) threw the ball pretty well. He just gave up the three homers.”

Bryan Woo struck out eight in six scoreless innings, and Eduard Bazardo and Trent Thornton finished off the shutout for the Mariners. Woo (8-4, 2.77 ERA) joins Detroit’s Tarik Skubal as the only pitchers with a sub-3.00 ERA, 100-plus strikeouts (104) and 20 or fewer walks (19) this season.

“He made it tough, man,” Kelly said. “Obviously, you see the velo of that slider. At times, it was a little bit bigger and, at times, a little bit smaller. That made it tough on our hitters, especially lefties when he was throwing it inside. He really located it really well in there.”

The Pirates (38-51) went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight runners, coming up empty in the first inning. They put a pair of runners in scoring position when Bryan Reynolds drew a two-out, full-count walk and Nick Gonzales doubled to right, but Randy Arozarena made a tumbling backhand catch near the left-field line to rob Oneil Cruz of an RBI and end the inning.

The Mariners took advantage of an error by Pirates first baseman Spencer Horwitz, who missed a throw from Gonzales to allow Julio Rodriguez to reach base, and Raleigh blasted Falter’s 3-1 fastball 401 feet into the upper deck in left field for a two-run homer to match his career best with 34. The ball left at an exit velocity of 115.2 mph, the hardest ever by Raleigh.

“He’s hot this year, for sure,” Falter said. “I just fell behind on him and missed execution. The ball needs to be up. I got him that one time, and it was just hard to get the ball over since then and he took advantage of it.”

The Pirates left the bases loaded in the fourth. Gonzales hit a one-out single to center, Cruz drew a full-count walk and Ke’Bryan Hayes reached on fielder’s choice when Mariners second baseman Cole Young — a 2022 first-round pick from North Allegheny — made a throwing error that pulled shortstop J.P. Crawford off the bag. But Woo got Adam Frazier to chase a slider away for a strikeout, then with a full count got Joey Bart to ground out to third to end the rally.

Where the Pirates failed to capitalize, the Mariners needed one swing to increase their lead. Arozarena hit a 1-1 curveball off the end of his bat for a line drive that carried 344 to right field for his 13th homer and a 3-0 Mariners lead in the fourth inning.

Gonzales got his third hit of the game with one out in the sixth inning but was faked out in a costly baserunning mishap. Gonzales broke for a steal and slid into second when Crawford deked a throw coming from Rodriguez, who caught Cruz’s fly ball and fired it to first baseman Donovan Solano for an inning-ending double play.

Raleigh made the Pirates pay again when he hammered Falter’s 1-0 fastball for a solo homer in the sixth to give the Mariners a 4-0 edge. The switch-hitting Raleigh has 14 homers against left-handed pitchers.

“The heater’s still my bread and butter, so I’m going to throw it,” Falter said. “I just need to execute it a little bit better. I’m just grinding a little bit better right now. I don’t feel the best right now but it is what it is.”

It was the seventh multi-homer game this season for Raleigh, the second most through 88 games in MLB history behind Reggie Jackson’s eight for the 1969 Oakland Athletics. Jackson isn’t the only Hall of Famer whose company Raleigh joined. With 35 homers, Raleigh tied Ken Griffey Jr.’s 1998 season for most by a Mariners player before the All-Star break. Raleigh also matched Mike Piazza for the most homers by a catcher through his first five seasons.

The Pirates failed on another scoring opportunity in the seventh against reliever Bazardo. Hayes hit a leadoff single, advanced to second on a wild pitch and stole third. Bazardo struck out Frazier and Bart before walking Isiah Kiner-Falefa, then struck out Horwitz.

The Mariners didn’t miss on their chances. Solano singled to start the seventh, and Dylan Moore hit a two-run homer to left-center for Seattle’s fifth four-homer game of the season.

“Today was tough,” Kelly said. “It’s something that’s plagued us this year at times and got us again today. When we look back over this last week, we’ve been getting those hits.”