Raleigh thought he had his first homer of the season when he lifted a deep fly ball to right field off Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz. The ball came off his bat 105 mph and seemed to be carrying over the 8-foot wall in right field. But Adell was tracking it off the bat, got to the wall and timed his leap perfectly, snaring the supposed solo homer.
“I thought there was a chance,” Raleigh said. “But you never know.”
In the eighth inning, Naylor hit a deep drive to right field that looked to be out. Adell had the same buildup as he did for Raleigh’s shot and made almost the same catch.
Adell erased three runs in a game where his team scored one.
“Obviously, you look at the three balls that he caught,” Raleigh said. “But at the same time, we’ve gotta do a better job at the little things, getting guys over, executing with runners in scoring position. That’s what kind of hurt us tonight.”
Indeed, the Mariners finished the game 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine runners on base.
The Mariners wasted another outstanding start from Emerson Hancock. The right-hander tossed 6 2/3 innings allowing one run on six hits with no walks and five strikeouts.
The one run allowed came immediately in what was hectic first inning for Hancock. The fourth pitch of his outing — a 96-mph fastball on 2-1 count — was turned into a leadoff homer by Zach Neto.
It looked like the Angels might tack on more when Nolan Schanuel doubled to left-center and Jorge Soler sneaked a single through the right side to put runners on the corners with one out. But Hancock came back to strike out Yoan Moncada for the second out of the inning.
The third out, well, that was a little unusual. Facing the right-handed hitting Adell, Hancock uncorked a wayward sweeper into the other batter’s box. Raleigh couldn’t glove it. The ball ricocheted off the backstop and started rolling back as a hustling Raleigh slid on his knees to grab it, spun and fired back toward home plate as he fell toward the ground.