SEATTLE -- For a team still under. 500 for the season, the Red Sox seem to thrive in one-run games.
Notching a run in the top of the ninth, the Sox held off the Seattle Mariners, 2-1 at Safeco Field for their fourth win in the last five games, improving to 8-3 in one-run games this season.
Brock Holt doubled to start the ninth, took third on a sacrifice bunt and scored the winning run when Mookie Betts flied to left. Rickie Weeks dropped that fly ball, though Betts was given credit for a sacrifice fly.
Closer Koji Uehara pitched the ninth for his eight save. It marked the first time that Uehara had pitched in consecutive games since he blew a save in Baltimore on April 25.
Starter Joe Kelly, who had been tagged for five or more runs in each of last his last four starts, blanked the Mariners through the first five innings, getting 13 outs on the ground.
In the sixth, the Mariners scratched out a run when Nelson Cruz worked a one-out walk, took second on a single to right by Kyle Seager, advanced to third on a wild pitch and trotted home on a groundout by Logan Morrison.
Kelly was lifted with one out in the seventh, having struck out only two hitters. But he was far more efficient -- and effective -- in getting weak contact, earlier in the count.
Boston Red Sox
The Sox had taken a 1-0 lead in the fourth when, with two out, Shane Victorino homered to left, his first home run of the season.
Later, Victorino made the defensive play of the night when he raced back to make an over-the-shoulder catch on a ball hit to the warning track by pinch-hitter Justin Ruggiano in the seventh. Victorino then alertly made a strong throw to first, doubling up Chris Taylor to end the inning.