Texas starter Martin Perez gave up two runs and two hits in six innings, including a line-drive homer from Cruz leading off the fourth.
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The Rangers turned three walks, two errors and a bloop hit in the fifth inning into a 3-2 win over the Seattle Mariners, ending their nine-game winning streak on Opening Day.
Daniel Murphy was a huge hit in his Washington debut with a home run and a go-ahead double in the 10th inning, and the Nationals rallied past Atlanta. Cruz was the Seattle DH 72 times last season but manager Scott Servais is trying to keep Gutierrez healthy.
Mariners: RHP Hisashi Iwakuma makes the first start of his fifth season with Seattle a week shy of his 35th birthday.
The arms: The Rangers bullpen allowed 11 runs after the seventh inning in the series….
Cano started the eighth by crushing a first-pitch homer against Wilhelmsen. In the second inning, Kyle Seager would follow Cano’s lead and crush one of his own.
After the four umpires conferred, the call was upheld and Girardi played the remainder of the game under protest.
Never before had the Rangers had pitchers in consecutive games allow five runs without recording an out. He’s now 6-1 in season openers.NOTES: Texas 3B coach Tony Beasley will be in the dugout as he continues to undergo treatment for rectal cancer. Texas, meanwhile, won the AL West for the first time since 2011 with an 88-74 record, but fell to Toronto in five games in the NLDS. He has mostly played first but can also play left field, giving the Angels some defensive flexibility and also a left-handed bat off the bench.
Things got a little testy during Tuesday’s matchup between the Mariners and Rangers when Rangers reliever Tom Wilhemsen beaned Chris Ianetta out of frustration after allowing six runs in the eighth inning. SS Ketel Marte went 0-for-5 and is batting.000… He is batting.750. He won both his starts against the Rangers in 2015.
Pitching: Colby Lewis allowed three runs on six hits, including two homers, in six innings. The 33-year-old Asian star struck out against Hamels with two on in the seventh.
Ian Desmond caught all three balls that came his way in his first big league start in center field.
“We busted out, obviously, with some huge home runs”. “Huge home runs. Awesome to see our guys respond that way”. Those are the things that really excite me. “We have to shore up, sharpen up and we’ll get it going in the right direction”.
“We had timely hitting”.
PLAY OF THE GAME: Utilityman Luis Sardinas played left field for the first time and his first play resulted in a costly mistake.
“A lot of firsts are about to happen”, Servais said.
“I was in good position, and at the last second I lost the ball”, Marte said. “It looks like they had a pretty good idea of what I had, but on the other hand my job is to back them off and not let them get too comfortable like they were feeling”. First pitch is at 1:05pm Central.
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An Opening Day like this one, with all its nooks and crannies, is just one day.
