Felix Hernandez pitched a four-hitter to become the major's first eight-game winner, Nelson Cruz hit his AL-best 18th homer to snap a scoreless tie in the ninth inning and the Seattle Mariners completed a three-game sweep by beating the Tampa Bay Rays 3-0 on Wednesday.
Hernandez (8-1) got four double plays in his second shutout this season. It was his first win at Tropicana Field after going 0-2 in four previous starts.
Brad Boxberger (2-3) relieved Chris Archer after he pitched two-hit ball for eighth innings, and Boxberger walked Seth Smith and Robinson Cano with two outs.
Cruz then made it 3-0 on a long home run that landed in a center-field 10,000 gallon fish tank that is home to a group of cownose rays.
This is the Mariners' first three-game road sweep against the Rays since Sept. 2000.
Archer tied a career high with 12 strikeouts for the Rays, who have lost five in a row. The right-hander had stretches where he retired 12 and 11 batters in a row.
Archer allowed just two runners, coming on a first-inning double by Smith and Logan Morrison's single in the fifth. Left fielder David DeJesus took away an extra-base hit from Smith with a lunging catch on a sixth-inning opposite-field liner.
Hernandez got inning-ending double plays with two-on in both the second and sixth innings. He also induced double plays with one-on during the third and fifth.
Kevin Kiermaier appeared to get hit around the right ankle by Hernandez's pitch in the sixth and left the game one inning later,
TRAINER'S ROOM
Mariners: CF Austin Jackson is 1 for 9 in two games since returning from a sprained right ankle. He struck out in all four at-bats Wednesday.
Rays: Manager Kevin Cash is hopeful SS Asdrubal Cabrera (groin) and RF Steven Souza Jr. (left wrist) will be back in the lineup Friday. ... LHP Matt Moore (elbow surgery) will start his second extended spring training game Thursday. ... OF Desmond Jennings (left knee), who has missed 30 games, is playing catch.
UP NEXT
Mariners: LHP James Paxton (3-2) will face reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, RHP Corey Kluber (2-5), and Cleveland Thursday night.
Rays: Tampa Bay starts a 10-game road trip Friday night at Baltimore.
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