BALTIMORE — Logan Gilbert allowed two hits in seven innings, Teoscar Hernández and Tom Murphy homered and the Seattle Mariners routed the Baltimore Orioles 13-1 on Friday night in a game that started 100 minutes late because of rain.
Murphy hit a two-run shot off Kyle Gibson (8-5) to cap a four-run third for Seattle, and Gilbert (5-4) had an outstanding night on the mound. He struck out just five but induced plenty of weak contact.
“I think when I’m at my best it’s pretty effortless, and just kind of smooth and easy, and that’s how it felt tonight,” said Gilbert, who was perfect in innings three through six. “It’s kind of what we were working on in the midweek bullpen, and happy to take it into the game.”
American League batting leader Austin Hays singled in the second for Baltimore’s lone hit until Anthony Santander homered in the seventh.
The Mariners were already comfortably ahead before they added seven runs in the eighth. Hernández, Ty France and Eugenio Suárez finished with three hits apiece. One Oriole who did manage a scoreless outing was infielder Josh Lester, who pitched the ninth.
“It looks like, ‘Oh, it’s a position player, you should just rake this guy.’ It’s not as easy as it looks,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said.
The Mariners took a 1-0 lead on Murphy’s sacrifice fly in the second. The key play that inning came one batter earlier, when Kolten Wong’s hard grounder got past second baseman Adam Frazier, ending up as a single instead of a double play that would have ended the threat.
Suárez hit an RBI single in the third and Wong followed with a sacrifice fly. Then Murphy hit a drive that cleared the big wall in left field for his third homer of the season.
Hernández hit a solo shot in the fourth, and the Orioles never came close to making a game of it after that.
Gibson allowed five runs and seven hits in three innings. That snapped a streak of 12 games in which Baltimore starters had allowed three earned runs or fewer.
Seattle strung together six consecutive singles with two outs in the eighth. The first five brought in a run apiece before Suárez’s hit drove in two.
“I usually say timely hitting. It was just hitting all night,” Servais said.
Six Baltimore pitchers combined to throw 221 pitches.
Seattle has scored in double digits in two straight games. The Mariners beat the New York Yankees 10-2 on Thursday.
TRADE
The Orioles traded right-hander Spenser Watkins to the Houston Astros for $100,000. Baltimore had designated Watkins for assignment earlier in the week.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mariners: Servais said SS J.P. Crawford (bruised right shoulder) could have been available if needed, but he did not play.
UP NEXT
Baltimore sends Dean Kremer (8-3) to the mound Saturday against Bryce Miller (5-3) of the Mariners.
