Tampa Bay Launches Five Home Runs, Buries Seattle 7-2

Tampa Bay hit five home runs on Friday night and never trailed, rolling past Seattle 7-2. The Rays turned Luis Castillo into a punching bag — nine hits and four earned runs in five innings — while their own offense put on a power display that made the outcome feel settled by the fifth.

The game's tone was set early. Chandler Simpson singled to center in the third to score Junior Caminero, and then Richie Palacios went deep to right for 396 feet in the fourth to push the lead to 2-0. That homer was the decisive moment of the night: Tampa Bay's win probability swung from 71% to 84% on that single swing, and the Rays never looked back.

The fifth inning was where Seattle's night fully unraveled. Cole Young gave the Mariners a pulse with a 398-foot shot to right center — his team's lone home run — but Tampa Bay answered immediately and emphatically. Cedric Mullins went deep to right at 378 feet, then Victor Mesa Jr. followed with a 392-foot blast to right center, pushing the lead to 4-1 before Castillo could record another out. Mesa Jr. finished 3-for-4 with a homer and an RBI; Caminero went 2-for-4 with a homer, two RBI, and two runs scored. The story of the night was clearly Tampa Bay's lineup depth — four different Rays hit home runs, and Simpson, who went 3-for-4, contributed without one. Seattle managed to cut it to 4-2 in the sixth on a fielder's choice, but that was as close as it got.

Caminero put the game away in the seventh with a 385-foot shot to right that scored Aranda and made it 6-2, and a sacrifice fly by Walls capped the scoring at 7-2. On the mound, Nick Martinez gave Tampa Bay 5.1 innings of work — four hits, two earned runs, one walk, one strikeout — and Kevin Kelly was immaculate in relief: 2.0 innings, no hits, no runs, no walks. It appears Tampa Bay got exactly what it needed from its pitching staff: enough length from Martinez to hand a clean game to Kelly, who slammed the door. Luis Castillo, meanwhile, looks like he had one of those nights where nothing stayed in the yard — nine hits allowed in five innings is a rough line for a pitcher of his caliber, and Seattle's bullpen had to absorb the rest.