Rangers One-Run Woes Continue in Mariners Loss

Texas blows a 5-1 lead and squanders chance to cool off the red-hot Seattle Mariners.

The Texas Rangers continued their woes in one-run games on Thursday, surrendering a four-run lead and falling to the red-hot Seattle Mariners 6-5 at Globe Life Field.

The Mariners (48-42) won their 11th straight game and remained in one of the Wild Card spots in the American League. The Rangers (41-46), meanwhile, squandered a chance to cool off the Mariners and a chance to finish .500 at the All-Star Break. The Rangers would have needed to sweep the Mariners to do that.

The Rangers are now 5-19 in one-run games and the bullpen, which has been generally reliable this season, had a rough outing after starter Martin Pérez left with a 5-1 lead after the fifth inning.

The Mariners cut the lead to 5-3 in the top of the seventh as they scored on a Eugenio Suarez single that scored Sam Haggerty and Julio Rodriguez, with Rangers reliever Matt Moore giving up the inherited runs.

It got worse in the eighth, as Dennis Santana has another poor outing after getting lit up by Oakland in a 12-inning loss on Tuesday.

Santana gave up three straight singles to Adam Frazier, Abraham Toro and Haggerty before Santana hit Rodriguez with a pitch to bring home Frazier and make it 5-4.

Rangers manager Chris Woodward lifted Santana for Brock Burke, but the normally-reliable left-hander couldn’t get out of the jam without giving up the lead. Ty France’s single scored Toro and Haggerty to give the Mariners a 6-5 edge.

From there, the Mariners’ bullpen pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth to get starter Marco Gonzalez off the hook. He managed to pitch six innings but gave up 11 hits and five runs.

Mariners reliever Diego Castillo made it an adventure with two out in the bottom of the ninth, and he took a Marcus Semien grounder off his back, retrieved it and turned around only to throw it wildly past first base, which allowed Semien to move to second. The Mariners intentionally walked Corey Seager to pitch to Adolis García, who skied one to left fielder Jesse Winker to end the game.

Pérez didn’t have his best stuff, either, but he slugged through five innings. He managed outs when it counted and only gave up one run, an inside-the-park home run to Haggerty in the fourth inning.

Pérez allowed only three hits, but he walked four hitters and struck out a career-high nine strikeouts. His pitch count sent him to the showers after the fifth, but along the way he escaped two bases-loaded jams in the second and third innings to protect the Rangers’ 5-1 lead.

It was an eventful day for Seager, who learned that he was added to the American League roster for the All-Star Game next Tuesday at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, the organization that he helped win the 2020 World Series. Seager also learned that he would participate in the All-Star Game Home Run Derby on Monday. He’ll be the No. 3 seed.

Seager extended his streak of consecutive games with an RBI to seven with a first-inning RBI single that scored Semien, part of a three-run first inning. Seager now has 50 RBI for the season.

Rangers catcher Jonah Heim and outfielder Leody Taveras also had two hits. Both also drove in a run.

It was also a good day for outfielder Elier Hernandez, who was called up before Thursday’s game from Triple-A Round Rock, taking the place of utility outfielder Steven Duggar.

Hernandez, who played in the minors for a decade, had his first two Major League hits in the game and scored his first MLB run in that first inning.

The Rangers continue their four-game series with Seattle at 7:05 p.m. on Friday.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard

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