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Rested Batista silences Rangers’ bats

Jose Guillen gave Seattle Mariners starter Miguel Batista a boost with a two-run homer in the seventh inning Saturday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Tim Booth Associated Press
Jose Guillen gave Seattle Mariners starter Miguel Batista a boost with a two-run homer in the seventh inning Saturday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

SEATTLE – Miguel Batista couldn’t find anyone to blame for his long layoff.

“You couldn’t even write a letter to God and tell him you’re mad at him,” Batista joked.

Thanks to Seattle’s wacky string of weather-related postponements, Batista made his second start with the Mariners on Saturday – and the 10 days off sure appeared to help. Batista rebounded from his poor debut, pitching into the seventh inning of Seattle’s 8-3 win over the Texas Rangers.

Batista gave up Sammy Sosa’s 590th career home run but otherwise handled the Rangers’ potent lineup.

Seattle had four games in Cleveland snowed out and one rained out in Boston since Batista’s debut.

“I was pretty well-rested, I can tell you that,” Batista said.

He also looked little like the pitcher who got battered in his debut with the Mariners on April 4, giving up eight runs and 10 hits to Oakland. Instead, Batista pitched 62/3 innings and struck out five.

Seattle’s offense gave Batista a jolt. Adrian Beltre and Jose Guillen both hit two-run drives for their first homers of the season. Beltre’s homer in the fourth gave Seattle a 6-0 lead and Guillen’s made it 8-3 in the seventh.

“We’ve swung the bats well in six games. We don’t have a lot of hits to show for it, but we’ve hit the ball hard pretty consistently,” Seattle manager Mike Hargrove said.

Sosa hit his second homer with the Rangers in the sixth inning. After Mark Teixeira lined a ground-rule double down the right-field line, Sosa put a 0-1 pitch a few rows deep in right-center field.

After sitting out last season, Sosa signed a minor league contract with the Rangers — the team he made his major league debut with in 1989. He made the team by hitting .408 with five homers in 17 games this spring. He hit his first homer of the season April 7 against the Red Sox.

“There are still more pieces to find and the more that I play the more I will find out all the adjustments I have to make,” Sosa said.

Otherwise, there wasn’t much offense for Texas. Kenny Lofton led off the game with a single, then Batista held the Rangers hitless until Brad Wilkerson started the fifth with a homer. Batista walked only one.

“Last time he was really excited and this time he was more in control of that and gave us a good effort,” Hargrove said of Batista.