Leo Rivas singled home the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Chicago Cubs 6-5 on Friday night in the opener of a three-game interleague series.
Cal Raleigh hit a three-run homer for the Mariners, who won for the fourth time in their past six games.
Alex Bregman homered twice and Pete Crow-Armstrong and Ian Happ also went deep for the Cubs. Bregman’s solo shot with one out in the top of the ninth off Mariners closer Andres Munoz tied the score at 5-all.
The Cubs suffered their second straight defeat but still have a five-game cushion atop the National League’s wild-card standings.
Mariners reliever Seranthy Dominguez (5-3) pitched a scoreless top of the 10th, with the Cubs’ Ryan Zeferjahn (4-4) taking the loss.
With Randy Arozarena the runner at second to start the bottom of the 10th, Victor Robles put down a successful sacrifice bunt. Zeferjahn got Julio Rodriguez to bounce back to the mound and walked Josh Naylor intentionally to bring up the light-hitting Rivas, who entered as a pinch runner for Taylor Ward in the eighth. Rivas lined an 0-1 sweeper into center field to score Arozarena from third.
The Cubs took a 3-0 lead off Mariners right-hander Emerson Hancock in the first. Crow-Armstrong led off with a towering blast to right-center. With one out, Michael Busch doubled and Bregman followed with a two-run shot down the left field line.
The Mariners answered in the second. Naylor grounded a one-out single to center and Ward walked. Raleigh followed with a three-run blast to deep left-center off Cubs lefty Matthew Boyd. Cole Young singled and advanced to second on Brock Rodden’s flyout to deep left. Brendan Donovan lined a single to right, with Young scoring the go-ahead run.
The Mariners tacked on an unearned run in the fifth. Rodden reached on a throwing error by shortstop Nico Hoerner and advanced to second on a balk. Arozarena’s bloop single to shallow center scored Rodden to make it 5-3.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell was ejected by home-plate umpire Brennan Miller between the fifth and sixth innings for arguing the balk call.
Happ went deep off reliever Eduard Bazardo leading off the eighth to pull the Cubs within 5-4.
Hancock went 5 2/3 innings and allowed three runs on eight hits, with no walks and six strikeouts.
Boyd, born in the Seattle suburb of Mercer Island, gave up five runs (four earned) on six hits over six innings. He walked two and fanned three.