By taking the first two games of the four-game series, NY (68-64) moved ahead of slumping Miami for second place in the NL East.
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Instead, it was a roundhouse blast to the jaw that Seattle might not recover from this season.
Seattle starter James Paxton lasted only five innings and to gut that out after shearing off a fingernail in the third inning, placing his next start in doubt.
He could only watch as his 97 miles per hour fastball on a 2-2 count leaked over the middle of the plate to Rougned Odor. “We’re just going to try to do the same thing the next game”. “I missed in the middle”.
“We have bounced back all year”, manager Scott Servais said. In between, Odor had a single to right but was easily thrown out by right fielder Shawn O’Malley when trying to stretch that hit to a double. The plan of using Cishek and Diaz to piece together the final three innings was gone.
The Mariners retook the lead in the top of the eighth on Robinson Cano’s sacrifice fly.
Seattle reliever Arquimedes Caminero was ejected after hitting Texas’ Elvis Andrus with a pitch in the seventh. We knew it was going to be a challenging trip for us with pitching we were up against.
“We’ve just got to go out there and play with everybody and show people who we are”, Hernandez said after giving up Carlos Gomez’s grand slam in the Rangers’ 14-1 romp Wednesday.
Diaz’s previous save was five outs on Friday in Chicago.
ADRIAN BELTRE collected double no. 584 in the 5th inning, breaking a tied with Hall of Famer Robin Yount and moving into sole possession of 20th place on the all-time list…next on the list is former Ranger Rafael Palmeiro at 585.
The two runs were all Miller (2-10) allowed in six innings.
After Diaz issues consecutive two-out walks in the eighth, the got out of that jam when a full-count slider to strike out slugger Carlos Beltran, and Bush then worked a flawless ninth. I was feeling great about this decision while he was looking great at the beginning of the game. “I paid the price for them”.
“No, I felt good”, he said. Mike Zunino had four strikeouts, three against Darvish. So it’s no problem for me. At this writing, the Rangers rank last in the AL in relief ERA and last in relief FIP, by a substantial margin on both counts. It’s part of the game. “Hopefully, it stays on, and I can battle my way through the rest of the season”.
After getting thrown out trying to stretch a single to right in the seventh, in between RBI singles by Adrian Beltre and Jonathan Lucroy, the veteran Beltre got the aggressive youngster’s attention with a tap to the head in the dugout. It was the same injury that plagued him at the end of 2015. He gave up four runs on eight hits and a walk while striking out four in five innings while battling a finger issue.
The 26-year-old left-hander pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing six hits and two walks with five strikeouts. “It was just painful throwing pitches”.
“It’s frustrating”, Iwakuma said.
“We threw a lot of fastballs and used the slow curve a lot to keep them off balance”, said Lucroy, who like Beltran, recently joined the Rangers. “It’s a fake nail, but it’s not an acrylic nail”. They did have other chances; they were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine runners.
With the win, the Angels swept the three-game series, outscoring the Reds by a combined 16-4, while earning their fifth straight victory overall.
In a 4-0 hole, the Mariners tallied twice against Hamels in the fourth on a pair of bases-loaded walks.
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That leaves Yu Darvish, who allowed three runs in 6 2/3 innings Monday in a win over the Mariners. Based on that alone, we’d expect their record in one-run games to fall below.500. Brock Holt stroked a pinch-hit single and Hill lined his hit to right field.
