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M's leapfrog Tigers in AL wild card race

Aug 18, 2014 - 12:07 AM Detroit, MI (SportsNetwork.com) - Chris Young helped the Seattle Mariners leapfrog the Detroit Tigers for the second AL wild-card spot, tossing six scoreless innings in Sunday's 8-1 win at Comerica Park.

Young (12-6) matched his career high for victories after holding the Tigers to four hits and a walk.

"This is a very tough lineup and he did an extremely good job. He gave us six solid innings," Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon said of Young.

Kyle Seager knocked in three runs, Chris Denorfia had an RBI triple among his three hits and Robinson Cano scored three times for Seattle, which moved a half-game ahead of Detroit.

Robbie Ray (1-3), a 22-year-old rookie, got the start for the Tigers in the rubber match of this three-game set and allowed four runs -- three earned -- on seven hits and two walks in five innings.

"It was a bad day all the way around. We didn't have good at-bats, we didn't pitch very well and we didn't play good defense," Detroit manager Brad Ausmus said.

The Mariners provided Young a lead before he took the mound as Kendrys Morales lined an RBI single and Seager lifted a sacrifice fly in the top of the first.

Cano came home on a Ray wild pitch with the bases loaded in the third, then Seager scored on Denorfia's triple to the left-center field gap two innings later.

Young, meanwhile, stranded a runner at third base in the second and third before pitching out of a jam after Detroit opened the fifth with consecutive singles.

Seattle pushed three more runs across in the sixth to widen its lead. Jim Johnson, the former closer who earned 101 saves for Baltimore the previous two seasons, made his Detroit debut and gave up leadoff double to Chris Taylor.

Taylor went to third on Austin Jackson's one-out single and scored on a Dustin Ackley grounder fielded by Johnson, who was released by Oakland on Aug. 1.

After Cano was intentionally walked, Jackson scored when left fielder Rajai Davis dropped a Morales popup. Johnson departed and Seager added an RBI single off Blaine Hardy to make it 7-0.

Seager's RBI single in the eighth made it an 8-0 game, while Victor Martinez spoiled the shutout bid with a run-scoring double off Seattle reliever Danny Farquhar in the home eighth.

Game Notes

Young also won 12 games while with Texas in 2005 ... McClendon was ejected by third base umpire Tony Randazzo in the bottom of the seventh inning ... The Tigers were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.