ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Rays beat Mariners 6-1 on Saturday, and the two names doing the heaviest lifting weren’t the ones you’d have guessed before first pitch. Ryan Vilade delivered the first pinch-hit homer of his career, a three-run blast that broke the game open, and Ben Williamson turned in a career-best four-hit day that included the run that got Tampa Bay on the board in the first place.
For Seattle, it was the fifth straight loss, tying a season high. For Tampa Bay, it was another data point in a season that’s already produced the best record in the American League.
Williamson Ties It Early, Then Just Keeps Hitting
Seattle struck first. Cole Young scored on a Colt Emerson sacrifice fly in the second, and for a while it looked like the Mariners might have a pitcher’s duel on their hands. Tampa Bay answered in the bottom of the inning when Williamson — drafted by the Mariners back in 2023, then traded to the Rays in February — lined an RBI double to score Chandler Simpson and tie it at 1-1.
That was just the start of Williamson’s afternoon. He went 4-for-4, adding a stolen base and eventually scoring an insurance run in the eighth. It’s the kind of day that sticks out even against a career night from someone he used to share a clubhouse with — a small irony that wasn’t lost on anyone paying attention to the box score.
Jonathan Aranda chipped in three more hits of his own and drove in a run, giving Tampa Bay’s lineup traffic on the bases most of the afternoon even when the scoreboard wasn’t moving.
Rays Beat Mariners 6-1 as Vilade Breaks It Open in the Seventh
Mariners starter Logan Gilbert had kept the Rays largely in check through six-plus innings, working out of trouble in the third and fourth after Tampa Bay opened those frames with runners in scoring position. Gilbert even made a bit of history along the way, striking out Jonny DeLuca in the second inning to become just the fifth pitcher ever to reach 1,000 strikeouts in a Mariners uniform.
But in the seventh, with two outs, Seattle manager Dan Wilson appeared ready to pull Gilbert before letting him stay in. Aranda promptly ripped a double. Seattle intentionally walked Junior Caminero to set up a favorable matchup — and instead brought in left-hander Gabe Speier to face Vilade off the bench. Vilade made it hurt immediately, driving Speier’s first pitch out to left for a three-run homer that turned a one-run game into a 5-1 laugher. Williamson’s run in the eighth made it 6-1, and that’s how it stayed.
Tampa Bay reliever Garrett Cleavinger slammed the door in the eighth, striking out pinch hitter Mitch Garver with two runners aboard to keep the Mariners from making things interesting.
A Fifth Straight Loss for a Reeling Seattle Club
Mariners starter Logan Gilbert (7-6) finished with four runs allowed on nine hits over 6⅔ innings — a line that looks worse than his stuff actually played most of the day, undone mostly by one bad pitch to Vilade. Seattle’s offense, meanwhile, couldn’t find anything more after Young’s early run, managing just six hits total and never getting a runner past second base the rest of the way.
Five losses in a row is the kind of stretch that gets magnified on a team that entered the year with real expectations, and Saturday did nothing to change that trajectory.
Rays Keep Rolling at Home
Griffin Jax (5-6) got the win for Tampa Bay, working around a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the first inning with a pair of strikeouts before settling in for five innings of one-run ball. It was exactly the kind of professional, low-drama outing that’s defined a Rays team now sporting a majors-best 35-14 home record.
Saturday’s win also came on an emotional day at Tropicana Field — Rays franchise great Evan Longoria was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in a pregame ceremony, and the home crowd carried that energy into the game itself.
What Comes Next
The series wraps up Sunday, with left-hander Ian Seymour (6-1, 4.11 ERA) taking the mound for Tampa Bay against Seattle’s Emerson Hancock (6-4, 3.23). For the Mariners, it’s a chance to avoid a series sweep and stop the bleeding before it becomes a bigger problem. For the Rays, it’s one more shot to pad a lead that’s already the best in the league.
