On Aug 9, 2025, Mariners edged the Rays 3-2 as Cal Raleigh’s MLB-leading 43rd HR in the 8th flipped a 2-0 lead; Drew Rasmussen shined, Lowe & Caminero homered.
StatPro MLB Beat Reporter
For seven crisp innings, the Rays played the road blueprint to perfection: elite starting pitching, early power, clean defense. Then Cal Raleigh stepped in. Seattle’s switch-hitting catcher launched his MLB-leading 43rd home run — a three-run shot off Griffin Jax in the eighth — turning a 2-0 Rays lead into a 3-2 gut punch on Saturday night at T-Mobile Park. Brandon Lowe and Junior Caminero provided solo homers and Drew Rasmussen spun six shutout frames, but the Mariners finished it off with Carlos Vargas earning the win and Matt Brash striking out the side in the ninth for his second save.
It took one swing — Cal Raleigh’s MLB-leading 43rd — to flip a 2-0 Rays lead into a 3-2 loss in the eighth.
Tampa Bay was six outs from a clean, clinical road win when the inning unraveled. J.P. Crawford and Cole Young opened the eighth with singles against Griffin Jax, bringing up Raleigh, who has made a habit of wrecking best-laid plans. One pitch later, the Rays’ lead was gone. It’s the exact scenario this team has lived on avoiding — extra baserunners ahead of damage — and Saturday it bit them. Credit Seattle’s back end, too: Brash slammed the door with three strikeouts in the ninth.
In his return to his home state, Drew Rasmussen gave the Rays everything they needed and more: six shutout innings, four hits, no walks, four strikeouts, and the poise of a staff anchor. He’s now surrendered just one earned run in 20 1/3 career innings against the Mariners and has allowed only two extra-base hits across his last five starts. The outing matters beyond the box score. With the margin for error shrinking, having Rasmussen reliably carry games into the late innings gives Kevin Cash a clearer path to leverage matchups — provided the bats tack on and the bullpen converts.
Junior Caminero’s fifth-inning blast was his 31st of the season and a reminder of why the organization keeps handing him the biggest at-bats. He’s at .256 with 77 RBI, a bona fide middle-of-the-order bat whose power plays to every part of the park. Brandon Lowe set the tone early with a first-inning solo shot to right, the kind of quick strike this offense has leaned on. The issue Saturday? Both came with the bases empty. The Rays put two over the wall but never manufactured the insurance run that would’ve changed the eighth-inning calculus.
Tasked with the eighth and a 2-0 lead, Griffin Jax (1-6) yielded two singles before the decisive homer. Recently activated, Jax has the stuff to live in leverage, but the first week back can be a stress test. Tampa Bay will keep working to sort the late-inning lanes: who takes the eighth, who gets pockets of lefties, and how to sequence around the opponent’s biggest bat. Nights like this don’t rewrite roles, but they do fast-track decisions. The Rays didn’t lose this one because of one pitch alone — they lost it because they were a swing short of putting it out of reach earlier.
The loss nudges Tampa Bay to 57-60, still fourth in the AL East and 11 games behind Toronto. A single-game skid doesn’t define August, but it does underscore the formula from here: ride frontline starts like Rasmussen’s, stack incremental offense, and nail the leverage moments. The Rays have been in tight, low-scoring games all year; finishing them will determine whether they chase down a spot in September.
No new moves were announced Saturday. The most recent activity came August 1, when the Rays activated Griffin Jax. No fresh updates from the farm, either. For a club balancing development and contention, the quiet isn’t a bad thing — it puts the spotlight on the major-league group tightening execution in winnable games like this one.
The series continues in Seattle on Sunday, and the mission is straightforward: carry over Rasmussen’s template, get traffic ahead of the power, and simplify the bullpen’s job with tack-on runs. Caminero’s confidence is surging, Lowe looks locked in, and the rotation is giving Tampa Bay a chance every night. Convert a few more of these coin flips, and the math starts to look a lot friendlier.
The bones of a late-summer push were all here — ace-caliber starting, star-power swings, and a game within reach. The Rays didn’t finish it. If they turn those margins their way over the next two weeks, Saturday becomes a footnote. If not, it’ll feel like a missed signal. Either way, the path forward is clear: protect leads, pile on, and let the rotation set the tone.
