Mariners earn crucial walk-off win over A's to avoid getting swept

Ryan Divish, The Seattle Times on Apr 22, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SEATTLE — Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez and Josh Naylor — the three players critical to the Mariners success on offense this season — delivered on a day when they absolutely needed a victory.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and extra innings looming, Raleigh bounced a ball up the middle to keep the comeback hopes alive. Rodríguez moved Raleigh into scoring position with a single to left.

And Naylor made sure the Mariners avoided being swept at home by the A’s, closing out the homestand with a win.

He lined a single to left field that allowed Raleigh to score from second for a 5-4 walk-off victory Wednesday afternoon at T-Mobile Park.

The Mariners ended the six-game homestand with a 3-3 record. They will travel to St. Louis Wednesday night, perhaps to see The Gateway Arch with an day off on Thursday before opening a three-game series at Busch Stadium on Friday as part of six-game road trip.

When Nick Kurtz was able to drive a low slider over the wall in center field, tying the game in the top of the ninth, it seemed like the Mariners were en route to a third straight loss.

The small crowd of 15,704 certainly didn’t seem to have much hope.

In the bottom of the ninth, Leo Rivas led off with a single off A’s reliever Joel Kuhnel. But when J.P. Crawford hit into a double play, erasing the base runner, extra innings seemed like a given.

The Mariners got an abbreviated and pitch-filled start from Logan Gilbert.

Gilbert made it only four innings on 89 pitches. He allowed three runs on six hits with two walks, a hit batter and three strikeouts. The A’s hit him hard, putting eight balls in play with exit velocities of more than 95 mph. They had four over 105 mph.

The A’s grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the first. Gilbert walked Kurtz to start the game. He then gave up a hard single to Shea Langeliers and a weird single when Carlos Cortes’ liner back to the mound hit him just above the stomach and then going inside of his jersey where it got trapped. It was ruled a single by the umpires, loading the bases.

Tyler Soderstrom drove in the first run with a sac fly and Jeff McNeil made it 2-0 with a two-out single to center.

The Mariners got a run back in the bottom of the first. Crawford started the inning with a single off Aaron Civale. With one out, Rodríguez and Josh Naylor both singled to load the bases. Randy Arozarena drove in Seattle’s first run with a sac fly to left. The Mariners reloaded the bases again when Luke Raley worked a walk, but Dom Canzone struck out looking to end the inning. Would that failure to add on come back to haunt them or be a sign of things to come?

The A’s made it 3-1 in the third inning. Cortes led off with an infield single and somehow scored from first base without a thrown on Jacob Wilson’s double down the third baseline and into the left field corner.

Seattle chipped away at the two-run lead.

Cal Raleigh moved the Mariners within a run when he hit a laser over the wall in right field for a solo homer. It was his third consecutive game with a solo homer.

The Mariners tied the game in the sixth. Naylor led off with a single. With one out, pinch-hitter Mitch Garver doubled to right-center to put runners on second and third. Rob Refsynder, who was called on to pinch hit for Canzone, hit a deep drive to center that allowed Naylor to tag up and score.