SEATTLE — Cleveland Rajai Davis hit his sixth home run of the season on a night when starter Trevor Bauer controlled the Seattle bats on the way to the Indians’ 3-1 win over the Mariners on Monday.
With a dominating curveball and a fastball that touched 97 miles per hour, Bauer (4-2) allowed just one run off five hits over 7 2/3 innings to lead the Indians to their sixth consecutive win, Cleveland’s longest streak of the season.
Davis went 2-for-4 with a fifth-inning solo homer that gave the Indians (32-24) a 3-1 lead.
Veteran Bryan Shaw and closer Cody Allen finished off the win after Bauer got the first two outs of the eighth inning. Shaw came on in the ninth and got all three batters to earn his 12th save of the season.
Seattle (31-26) suffered its fourth loss in a row to fall four games behind Texas in the American League West.
Seattle starter James Paxton (0-2) took the loss despite a solid start that saw him give up just five hits, three runs and one earned run over six innings. He struck out 10 and walked just one in his second start since being promoted from Triple-A Tacoma last week.
Two of Seattle’s five hits were doubles. Third baseman Kyle Seager (in the fourth) and designated hitter Nelson Cruz (in the sixth) each doubled with two outs and got left on base.
Mariners shortstop Ketel Marte returned from a 15-day stint on the disabled list to go 1-for-3. He singled in his first at-bat, stole second base and came around to score Seattle’s lone run on a Norichika Aoki RBI single.
Indians center fielder Rajai Davis hit a fifth-inning solo homer to give Cleveland a 3-1 lead. Davis hit a 3-2 pitch from Seattle starter James Paxton over the left-field fence for his sixth home run of the season.
Cleveland took advantage of a Seattle error to take a 2-1 lead in the fourth.
After the Mariners took a 1-0 lead on a Norichika Aoki RBI single in the third, the Indians responded with a two-run fourth that was made possible when Seattle catcher Chris Iannetta missed a throw to the plate.
With one out and Carlos Santana on first base, Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez doubled into the left-field corner. As Santana rounded third and tried to score, Seattle shortstop Ketel Marte took a relay throw from left and threw to home, a couple of steps in front of Santana, but Iannetta missed the ball to allow the tying run to score and Ramirez to reach third base. Ramirez then scored on a Juan Uribe sacrifice fly for a 2-1 Indians lead.
NOTES: Seattle activated SS Ketel Marte (sprained left thumb) from the disabled list before Monday’s game. He missed the minimum 15 days. To make room for Marte, the Mariners optioned OF Stefen Romero to Triple-A Tacoma. Romero hit .200 (3-for-15) with two RBIs in eight games for Seattle this year. … The Indians announced before Monday’s game that RHP Danny Salazar would not make his Wednesday start due to shoulder tightness. RHP Carlos Carrasco will move back a day to start Wednesday’s game, and the team announced that RHP Cody Anderson will be recalled from Triple-A to start Tuesday. … RF Tyler Naquin homered in three consecutive games heading into Monday night, the longest streak by a Cleveland player since 2B Jason Kipnis homered in four straight in 2011. Naquin, a rookie, hit his first major league home run on Friday, then added homers Saturday and Sunday. He failed to homer on Monday, however.