Rangers Fail To Execute As Gonzales Pitches Complete Game in 3-1 Loss To Seattle

The Rangers lineup mustered only two hits as Seattle's Marco Gonzales had his way with the Texas lineup in Thursday's 3-1 loss to the Mariners.

Seattle Mariners starter Marco Gonzales might have given new definition to "mowing down" the opposing lineup. Not only did he have a top-of-the-line John Deere riding mower, he attacked the Texas Rangers lineup with an arsenal that your local Home Depot or Lowe's would covet.

Gonzales went the distance against the Rangers, as the Mariners won Thursday's rubber match by a score of 3-1. Texas was held to only two hits all afternoon as Gonzales breezed through nine innings of work, needing only two hours and eight minutes to send the Seattle fans home happy.

What was alarming about the Rangers performance was Gonzales did exactly what they expected him to do. No adjustments needed. No growing pains. Just a failure to execute.

"Honestly, it's just a lack of execution on a pitch that we know we're getting," said Rangers manager Chris Woodward. "When it happens over and over again, it's a little bit frustrating. When you know it's coming — it's not like the guy is throwing 99 where it's impossible to hit. He was giving us some pretty good pitches to hit. We just didn't do anything with them."

On the mound, Mike Foltynewicz turned in his second straight quality start, giving up three runs on six hits with no walks and six strikeouts in seven innings of work.

"I think that's the best we've seen him throw all year, honestly," Woodward said. "Seven innings and three runs is plenty for us to get a chance to win the game. I thought his stuff had a lot of life to it. Overall, I thought Folty was awesome tonight."

Foltynewicz did add two more tallies to his MLB-leading total of home runs allowed. J.P. Crawford hit a solo homer to give Seattle the lead in the fifth inning, and Jake Fraley added another run in the seventh with his own solo blast.

But on this day, the offense couldn't pick up the pitching. Chris Woodward has been more than patient as his young hitters learn and grow this season. But he clearly was not pleased with his lineup's performance.

"I sound like a broken record, but we've gotta be better than that," Woodward said. 

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