Rangers Sweep Mariners
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers didn’t have many scoring chances on Sunday against Seattle starter Hisashi Iwakuma and so they had to make the most of them.
Seattle also helped the cause with two physical errors and a mental one that keyed a three-run fifth inning for the Rangers in a 3-2 victory that completed a series sweep against the Mariners.
First-place Texas, which has now won seven of its last eight games, moved three games ahead of Seattle in the American League West after rallying from a 2-0 deficit.
With a runner on first and one out, Texas’ Elvis Andrus hit a grounder to short that Luis Sardinas bobbled to put runners on first and second. Jared Hoying brought in the first run with an RBI single to left center and Bobby Wilson followed with a shallow fly ball to left off Iwakuma (4-5), with Andrus sprinting home to tie the score as left fielder Stefen Romero lazily threw the ball in.
Jurickson Profar followed with a single to left that Romero couldn’t come up with cleanly and Hoying scored the go-ahead run.
“You have to take every game, no matter how,” said Andrus, who watched to see how Romero threw the ball in left before making the break. “It can be after errors or whatever. Today was an example of that, never give up even though they were ahead.
“Iwakuma threw really terrific ball today. It was tough to see the
pitches. He always keeps us off balance. In that inning, we took advantage of every opportunity.”
Romero said he double-pumped after making his catch on the Wilson fly ball, which gave Andrus enough time to score.
“He (Andrus) wasn’t running or anything, he was just nonchalant,” Romero said. “That’s when I was going to throw it. The second time is when I saw him took off, and I was just trying to throw it in.”
The three-run burst was enough for Texas left-hander Derek Holland (5-4), who set season highs in strikeouts (six) and innings pitched (seven) as he allowed three hits.
Holland got help from a the bullpen as Matt Bush and Jake Diekman combined to strike out the side in the eighth before Sam Dyson notched his seventh save of the season.
Holland needed 33 pitches to get through three innings before running into trouble in the fourth. He opened the inning by walking Franklin Gutierrez. After a fielder’s choice, Seattle’s Nelson Cruz lined his 13th homer of the season to left center.
Holland was able to shake off the Cruz homer as he allowed just an infield single in his final three innings.
“Obviously, establishing the fastball was a huge thing and kind of working off that, changing eye levels and mixing in and out was a big thing,” Holland said. “I’ve got to let my defense do their work and I felt like I did a good job of that by attacking the strike zone.”
Iwakuma pitched seven innings, giving up three runs but just one earned. He struck out seven and surrendered four hits.
Unfortunately for the Mariners, they didn’t make the plays behind him.
“I hope it’s a great sign for our starting pitching,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “Today was our game to win. We kind of gave it away. Defensively, we didn’t make the plays there in that inning. They put a three-spot up and end of story.”
