Seattle Mariners’ Nelson Cruz points skyward as he crosses home plate on his two-run home run off a pitch from Texas Rangers’ Derek Holland in the fourth inning of a baseball game on, Sunday, June 5, 2016, in Arlington, Texas. Texas is coming off a tough playoff loss to the Blue Jays last season but you can be sure they are using that as motivation this season and with a full year of Cole Hamels on the mound they are a very scary team that is also getting a healthy Yu Darvish back in the lineup.
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The 5th would ultimately be the only inning the Rangers were able to get to Seattle starter Hisashi Iwakuma and it all started with a Rougned Odor bunt single.
Texas has now won 13 of its last 15 games and all seven matchups against Houston in 2016.
Desmond will try to keep swinging the bat well Sunday when the Rangers look to extend their division lead by sweeping the visiting Seattle Mariners. They are 7-0 this season against the Astros, who have now lost 11 in a row on the road against their AL West and instate rivals.
Odor, the team’s usual second baseman, was 2-for-4 with three RBIs, including a third-inning home run and a game-tying sacrifice fly in the seventh. Fielder, though, singled in the third and final run in the first inning for a 3-0 lead that held until Jose Altuve took Colby Lewis out for a three-run shot in the third. Ian Desmond and Prince Fielder each had run-scoring hits for Texas.
“It’s something that we pride ourselves in, we respect the 90 feet and we run hard”, manager Jeff Banister said. “For Adrian to continue to grind it out, that’s how much these guys want to win”.
“We have more talent than this team (Rangers) does, I believe”, Giles said. “We shouldn’t be losing these kind of ballgames. That’s just how we are”.
“We’re in first-inning woes a little bit”, Mariners manager Scott Servais said on his 49th birthday.
Texas scored three times on four hits and an error and wild pitch in the first.
Odor led off the third with his eighth homer for a 4-3 lead.
SAM DYSON set down Cano-Cruz-Lee in the 9th inning and has now converted all 5 save chances since he was named closer on 5/18…is 7-for-8 in save tries overall…has retired 25 of 30 BF over 9.0 scoreless innings in his career vs. Seattle…picked up 1st career save vs. the M’s. “I know early on in the season, we were aggressive in certain situations and it seemed to cost us”. The lefty has a 1.23 ERA (two earned runs in 14 2/3 innings) in winning both of his starts against the Astros this season. Hoying scored on Jurickson Profar’s single through the left side because Profar has done nothing other than be sensational for the last week.
Andrus’ heads-up hustle paid off for the Rangers, who went on to win 3-2 to complete a sweep.
Hello Win Column, the Rangers are in first place by three games. It was Houston’s third such loss. We are playing good baseball, and we can feel that.
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Jurickson Profar – the Rangers second baseman on Monday – extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a leadoff triple that sparked a three-run first. Texas’s 35-22 record ties the franchise’s best start to a season through 57 games.
