SEATTLE — Eugenio Suárez matched his career high with his 49th homer, leading the American League West champion Seattle Mariners over the Colorado Rockies 6-2 on Thursday night for their 17th win in 18 games.
A day after clinching their first division title since 2001, the Mariners were assured a first-round bye and home-field advantage in the AL Division Series when Cleveland lost to Detroit earlier Thursday.
Suárez connected on a hanging slider from Bradley Blalock (2-6) for a two-run homer in the second, and Seattle never trailed as it won its seventh straight. Suárez, who also hit 49 homers for Cincinnati in 2019, added a run-scoring single in the fifth that raised his career-best RBI total to 117.
Seattle won its 11th straight home game, tying the team record set from May 20 to June 8, 2001.
Colorado dropped to 4-17 in September, and its 116 defeats are the most in the National League since the 1962 New York Mets lost 120.
Seattle’s Emerson Hancock, starting because Bryan Woo left his last start because of pectoral tightness, allowed two hits in four scoreless innings with seven strikeouts. Caleb Ferguson (5-4) worked around a walk in the seventh.
Dominic Canzone grounded into a run-scoring forceout in the fourth, when Randy Arozarena hit a two-run, two-out single.
Mariners slugger Cal Raleigh remained at 60 homers, and when he popped up to second base in the eighth, hundreds of fans at T-Mobile Park headed for the exits. He needs two homers to tie the AL record set by the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge.