Rangers Hurt By Long Ball In Fourth Straight Loss

The Texas Rangers "played a better game," but three costly home runs dropped them to 2-8 on the season.

The Texas Rangers rough start to the 2022 season continues as they fell to the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night by a final score of 6-2 at T-Mobile Park.

The Rangers were punched in the mouth right away. With one out in the first inning, Texas starter Jon Gray hit Ty France with a pitch then walked Jesse Winker. Eugenio Suárez followed with a three-run home run, which turned out to be all the Mariners needed to secure victory.

However, the Rangers allowed two more home runs on the night. Gray's second inning started with giving up a solo homer to Jarred Kelenic. Abraham Toro later added a two-run shot in the seventh inning to pull away late.

The Rangers answered Kelenic's homer with a run in the third inning after Eli White led off with a double, stole third base, then scored on a sacrifice fly by Marcus Semien. In the fifth inning, Semien drove in Texas' second run of the game with an RBI double that scored White from first base, which cut the deficit to 4-2.

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Jon Gray

Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

Marcus Semien

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Eli White

What aided in the Rangers' attempt to claw back into the game was Gray's ability to right the ship after giving up four runs early. After surrendering the Kelenic homer, Gray retired the next 10 Mariner batters and finished with five innings pitched—just the second time a Rangers pitcher logged that many innings so far this season. 

Gray's slider was considerably better after the first inning. As he described it after the game, he was throwing "spinners" instead of sliders in the opening frame.

Brett Martin followed Gray's strong finish with a 1-2-3 inning in the sixth. However, Spencer Patton was unable to keep the Rangers within striking distance. With one on and one out, Patton got ahead of Toro, but left a 0-2 fastball in the upper third of the strike zone and the Mariners' designated hitter made Patton pay for it.

All six of Seattle's run came via the home run, with two of the long balls coming off 0-2 counts.

The Seattle bullpen followed six strong innings from starter Robbie Ray with three scoreless innings, allowing just two singles. However, the Rangers hitters were considerably unlucky in the final few innings. In the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, five balls hit into play by the Rangers were hit 101 mph or harder, but all five wound up as outs.

"Our hardest-hit balls were later in the game," said manager Chris Woodward. "They just unfortunately found the glove of the other team. Today was a step forward in a lot of ways. I know we lost, and it sucks to lose. But we played a better game. At least, we kept fighting."

The Rangers are now 2-8 and have five games remaining on this west coast road trip. Texas continues their three-game series in Seattle on Wednesday. Dane Dunning (0-0, 5.19 ERA) will take the ball for the Rangers as he squares off with Mariners young right-hander Logan Gilbert (1-0, 0.90 ERA).