SEATTLE — Bryan Woo tied his season best with nine strikeouts while pitching six scoreless innings, Julio Rodríguez homered for the hosts, and the Seattle Mariners won 3-1 in a getaway day matchup Wednesday afternoon at T-Mobile Park to hand the Atlanta Braves their first series loss of the season.
The Mariners, who opened the three-game interleague series with a 5-4 win Monday before losing 3-2 Tuesday, improved to 18-20 and sit second in the American League West Division standings.
Atlanta, which fell to 26-12 but has a nine-game lead in the National League East, had won eight consecutive series and was 10-0-1 this season, having split four games with the Arizona Diamondbacks in early April in Phoenix. The Braves became just the fifth team in Major League Baseball’s wild-card era (since 1995) to go unbeaten in at least 11 straight series to open a season, joining the 2020 Los Angeles Dodgers (13 series), the 2018 Diamondbacks (12), the 1997 Baltimore Orioles (14) and the 1995 Philadelphia Phillies (12).
Woo (1-2) allowed one hit, walked two batters and threw a season-high 98 pitches, with 66 going for strikes. José A. Ferrer pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his second save of the.
Cole Young went 3-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI for the Mariners, while Jhonny Pereda was 2-for-2.
Pereda led off the bottom of the third inning with a single, Leo Rivas doubled, and J.P. Crawford walked to load the bases before Pereda opened the scoring when Cal Raleigh grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.
Rodríguez hit a 436-foot shot to center field that made it 2-0 in the sixth.
Braves starter Martín Pérez (2-2) gave up two runs and five hits while striking out five batters and walking one in 5 2/3 innings.
Seattle reliever Eduard Bazardo came on to start the eighth inning and gave up back-to-back singles to Mike Yastrzemski and Sean Murphy, who was replaced by pinch runner Jorge Mateo. Yastrzemski scored on a sacrifice fly by pinch hitter Dominic Smith to make it a one-run game.
After a Seattle challenge and replay review, Bazardo picked off Mateo at first before Drake Baldwin singled and Ozzie Albies struck out to end the inning.
The Braves are off Thursday before wrapping up a nine-game road trip with a three-game weekend series against the NL West’s first-place Dodgers. The scheduled starters for Friday’s opener at Dodger Stadium are Atlanta left-hander Chris Sale (6-1, 2.14 ERA) and Los Angeles right-hander Emmet Sheehan (2-1, 5.23).