The comeback came up short this time for the Mariners.
Kyle Seager’s three-run home run in the top of the ninth inning made things interesting, but the Mariners’ late comeback bid fell short in a 6-5 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Friday, dropping the Mariners (12-8) out of first place in the AL West.
Trailing 6-2, J.P. Crawford led off the ninth inning with a walk off Red Sox closer Matt Barnes. With one out, Ty France hit a broken-bat single. That brought up Seager, who turned on a 96-mph fastball and hit a no-doubt homer to right, his third of the season to get the Mariners within one run with one out.
But Kyle Lewis flew out and Evan White hit a hard line-out to short to end the game.
The Mariners were trying for their eighth comeback victory of the season. The only team in the majors with more comeback wins this season is … the Red Sox, now with 10.
Yusei Kikuchi struggled with his command as the Mariners fell behind 6-2 in the fifth inning.
The Mariners had largely been encouraged by what they had seen from Kikuchi in his first three starts of the season. The left-hander entered Friday with a 19-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 19 innings, having allowed just three home runs in those first three starts.
Against a stout Red Sox lineup, Kikuchi labored through 4 2/3 innings. He had little tempo and less command of any of his pitches, allowing five earned runs on six hits. He walked three and struck out only one.
Xander Bogaerts hit a two-run home run in the first inning — a 409-foot shot over the Green Monster and out of Fenway Park.
J.D. Martinez belted a solo homer off Kikuchi in the third inning, his seventh of the season to tie for the major league lead.
The Mariners scored first after Mitch Haniger led off the game with a double off the Green Monster. He scored on Seager’s opposite-field double off the Monster.
Crawford later added an RBI single to score Dylan Moore.
Lewis had his first two hits of the season, ending an 0-for-7 start after his return from the injured list earlier this week.
