Mariners Rally to Beat Rangers in Ninth

Texas fought to score four runs in the final three innings to take the lead, but couldn't hold it at Seattle.

The Texas Rangers fought to take the lead in the top of the ninth, but surrendered the lead in the bottom half as the Seattle Mariners overcame the rally to win 5-4 on Tuesday night.

The Mariners (53-45) won their second game of the three-game set with the Rangers, who scored four runs in their final three at-bats to take a 4-3 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.

But Rangers reliever Brett Martin (0-6) couldn’t hold the lead for Texas.

Seattle’s J.P. Crawford hit a leadoff single, and then scored from first on Cal Raleigh’s double to the gap in right-center field. After Adam Frazier’s sacrifice bunt moved Raleigh to third, Rangers manager Chris Woodward gambled by issuing intentional walks to both Julio Rodríguez and Ty France to load the bases. The hope was the Rangers (43-53) could get a force out or even turn a double play to send the game to extra innings.

Carlos Santana took care of that with an RBI sacrifice fly to Rangers center fielder Leody Taveras, who made the catch but couldn’t throw out Raleigh at home.

Texas’ inability to close squandered the work to get back into the game, sparked by an RBI double by Adolis García in the eighth and an RBI single by Ezequiel Duran in the ninth.

García’s hit should have won a creativity award. Corey Seager and Jonah Heim drew two-out walks from Mariners reliever Paul Sewald. García took a pitch on the fists of his bat and made contact. The hit went down the first-base line, landed foul, spun back into fair territory and turned into the game-tying RBI double.

García extended his hit streak to eight games and had two doubles in the game. His first double, which came in the top of the seventh, led to Nathaniel Lowe’s RBI single and the Rangers’ first run of the game.

Duran’s RBI single in the ninth gave the Rangers the lead, albeit temporarily. Taveras’ leadoff single off Mariners reliever Erik Swanson led to Nick Solak’s sacrifice bunt. With Taveras at second, Duran singled down the right-field line, a hit that Mariners right fielder Sam Haggerty had trouble running down. Taveras scored to make it 4-3 Rangers, and Duran was thrown out at second when he tried to stretch it to a double.

The Mariners nearly tore the game open in the first inning, as they faced Rangers starter Dane Dunning, who made his first start since July 10 after a 15-day stint on the injured list and had to survive a bumpy first inning before finishing off five innings.

He gave up a lead-off home run to Rodríguez, who made his first plate appearance since the All-Star game, where he hit 81 home runs in the home run derby and lost in the finals to Washington’s Juan Soto. Rodriguez beat the Rangers’ Corey Seager in the first round.

After that, Dunning retired the next two hitters before walking Eugenio Suárez and Jesse Winker. Kyle Lewis drove in Suárez to make it 2-0 Mariners. After J.P. Crawford singled to load the bases, Dunning managed to get Raleigh to ground out to Lowe at first base to end the inning.

After that, Dunning gave up one hit and one out in the next four innings, as he finished his five innings giving up four hits, two runs and three walks while striking out five.

While Lowe’s RBI single cut Seattle’s lead to 2-1 in the top of the seventh, the Mariners pushed the lead back to 3-1 in the bottom half of the seventh after Rangers reliever Matt Moore gave up a solo home run to Raleigh.

Texas struggled offensively early, with Mariners starter George Kirby going only five innings, but gave up just two hits and a walk while striking out four. The Rangers clawed back into the game by chipping away at the Mariners’ bullpen.

The Rangers sent Taylor Hearn back to Triple-A Round Rock to make room for Dunning so he could start on Tuesday. The Rangers indicated that Hearn will be working toward being a consistent bullpen presence before he returns to the Rangers.

The Rangers end their three-game series with the Mariners on Wednesday when the Rangers’ Jon Gray squares off with the Mariners’ Marco Gonzalez.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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