Odor has a team leading 27 home runs. Texas got to the right-hander for four hits, including a Carlos Gomez grand slam in the bottom of the fourth inning.
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In Denver, Kenta Maeda allowed two runs in five innings to take the loss for the Los Angeles Dodgers in an 8-1 rout at the hands of the Colorado Rockies. The short story is that Odor made a awful baserunning blunder that cost the Rangers a run and could have completely killed a rally in the 7th inning.
1B Dae-Ho Lee had three hits, but the Mariners went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) – Rougned Odor quickly atoned for his baserunning blunders with a big blast for the Texas Rangers.
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Felix Hernandez punches his glove after giving up a grand slam to Texas Rangers’ Carlos Gomez in the fourth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, in Arlington, Texas.
In Chicago, Miguel Montero hit a game-ending RBI single in the 13th inning.
Barnette worked two innings in relief of Perez, giving up a run on Seager’s home run. After a leadoff single and a stolen base, Iwakuma missed with a splitter low and inside to Nomar Mazara, who dropped the bat head and drilled a triple down the right-field line.
“We’ve been playing well”, Odor said. Guys are down a little bit and rightfully so.
Not that it matters, but the third-place Mariners, who allowed a season high in runs, fell 11.5 games back of Texas in the AL West and 4.5 in arrears of Baltimore for the second wild card. Houston remained 8½ games back after winning earlier Tuesday against Oakland.
“I’ve heard that he (Boggs) also would hit one home run after another in batting practice”, Suzuki said.
Odor had three hits, but twice was thrown out on the bases earlier in the game. “It was a predetermined thing that I’m going to take a shot at him and try to make a play”.
“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. “There is a certain margin of error in some situations”.
Seattle regained the lead in the eight when after loading the bases with one out against hard-throwing reliever Matt Bush (6-2) to set up Robinson Cano’s sacrifice fly.
The Rangers had two-run homer from Adrian Beltre (fifth inning off Vidal Nuno), a two-run shot by Rougned Odor (seventh off Arquimedes Caminero), a solo by Ryan Rua (eighth off Pat Venditte), and a three-run jolt by Odor (eighth off Venditte).
“We were able to string some good at-bats together and get some runs on the board”, said Kyle Seager, who drove in two runs and scored one. “We haven’t got it where we want it as an offensive team”. “It’s extremely hard. Our guys making him work.and have him go back out there after that inning, (he was) probably not as sharp as he was”. They Mariners are catching some of league’s better pitchers over the last week: CC Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka, Chis Sale, Jose Quintana and, on Monday, Darvish. Maeda has a 2.12 ERA in three starts at the hitter-friendly park.
Junichi Tazawa (3-2) wound up with the win and Craig Kimbrel pitched a ideal ninth for his 24th save. The performance marked the sixth time in 10 outings that the 25-year-old Venezuelan has yielded five or more runs.
Said Jeff Banister after the game: “I think the biggest pitch of the night for [Odor] was laying off the slider right before [the home run]”.
Odor’s Tuesday adventure started in the bottom of the third inning. X-rays and an MRI showed no structural damage. Cruz suffered the injury on a check swing Sunday. Lewis (strained right lat) has been out since late June. He gave up three runs in the first but followed with four shutout innings.
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Save for a 12-0 loss to the Tribe last Friday, the Rangers more than held their own against the current Central leaders in a series many felt was a potential AL Championship Series preview. Perez, 1-6 with a 6.30 ERA in his last 10 starts, moved to 8-2 this season at home.
