Mariners Continue Mastery of Rangers

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers do not have a solution for the Seattle Mariners.

The Rangers fell to the Mariners 6-2 on Friday night, giving Seattle (62-52) its ninth straight win over Texas (49-63). The last time the Rangers beat the Mariners was on June 4, when the Rangers won 3-2 with Glenn Otto taking the victory.

Since then, the Mariners won the last game of that three-game series, then won four straight in a visit to Globe Life Field right before the All-Star Break and swept the Rangers in Seattle from July 25-27.

The Mariners kept rolling, pecking away at a Rangers pitching staff that was using a bullpen game with Spencer Howard now on the injured list. Also on Friday, Major League Baseball announced that San Diego Padres slugger Fernando Tatis Jr. was suspended 80 games for testing positive for a banned substance.

Friday was the start of a celebratory weekend for the Rangers, who are inducting Ian Kinsler and long-time team executive John Blake into the Rangers Hall of Fame. That ceremony is on Saturday.

The Rangers squandered opportunities in the series opener while the Mariners squeezed the Rangers for enough offense to win.

Texas reliever Josh Sborz worked a scoreless first, with the only hit he allowed coming on a Mitch Haniger that drilled Sborz’s arm and landed in foul territory.

Taylor Hearn (5-7) followed him, but he gave up the first three Mariners runs in 2 2/3 innings of work. A weak groundout by Ty France in the third gave the Mariners a 1-0 lead. Then, in the fourth, Hearn loaded the bases before he was lifted for José Leclerc. Julio Rodriguez’s single scored two runs to make it 3-1 Mariners.

The Rangers tied the game in the bottom of the third as Marcus Semien hit a weak groundout to third base that scored Ezequiel Duran.

Leclerc threw 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, followed by a scoreless inning by Brett Martin. Matt Moore gave up an all-important run in the top of the eighth, one that gave the Mariners some cushion. Jonathan Hernández gave up two runs in the ninth.

The Rangers chased Mariners starter George Kirby in the bottom of the sixth. It required a Corey Seager walk, an Adolis García single and a Jonah Heim single, which scored Seager to cut the Mariners’ lead to 3-2. The Mariners brought in Matt Brash and he struck out Leody Taveras to end the inning.

The Rangers also had two runners on and two outs for Seager in the bottom of the seventh, but Mariners reliever Andrés Muñoz got Seager to pop out.

García’s mishandling of Cal Raleigh’s fly ball with one out and a runner on second in the top of the eighth was scored a double, but it gave Seattle two runners on for J.P. Crawford. He only needed to hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Adam Frazier and make it 4-2 Seattle.

The Mariners added two more runs in the top of the ninth off a Eugenio Suárez double, which scored Hainger and Dylan Moore. A fielding error by Seager allowed one of the runs to score.

Kirby (4-3) took the victory with 5 2/3 innings pitched, giving up seven hits and two runs (both earned) and a walk. He also struck out five.

The Rangers will use starting pitchers for the remainder of the series against Seattle, with Dane Dunning set to square off against Seattle’s Marco Gonzalez on Saturday, while Rangers ace Martín Pérez faces Logan Gilbert on Sunday.

The Rangers played the majority of the game without manager Chris Woodward, who was ejected in the bottom of the fourth for arguing balls and strikes with the home plate umpire. It was his first ejection of 2022.

You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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