Rangers laugh last
SEATTLE – Like their season-opening victory, the Seattle Mariners used Texas Rangers mistakes and their solid situational hitting to claw their way from behind Tuesday night.
Then the Rangers won the way they know how – with a big dose of heavy hitting.
The Rangers ruined another feel-good opportunity for the Mariners at Safeco Field when Josh Hamilton hit a two-run homer off closer J.J. Putz with one out in the ninth inning for a 5-4 victory.
“One of those games,” Mariners manager John McLaren said. “J.J. got a pitch up and the guy hit it out. We battled back, but we just couldn’t hang on there at the end.”
Hamilton’s homer finished off a night of stellar play at the plate and in the field.
His infield single in the eighth started a three-run rally when the Rangers broke a 1-1 tie. His over-the-shoulder running catch on the center-field warning track robbed the Mariners’ Brad Wilkerson of a possible RBI in the fifth inning.
“We had him in camp in Tampa Bay. He’s a talent,” said McLaren, who coached with the Rays two years ago. “He’s a strong man, a fast man.”
The Mariners found themselves on the brink of defeat, and then victory, throughout the game, only to take a 1-1 tie into the eighth thanks to solid pitching and some remarkable fielding by Felix Hernandez.
Hernandez gave up five hits in seven innings and helped himself three times by fielding hard-hit balls back to the mound.
Twice he escaped bases-loaded situations, and in the seventh he got out of a two-on, one-out jam by snagging Michael Young’s liner back to the mound and turning it into a double play.
Eventually, however, the Rangers struck.
With a string of left-handed hitters coming to the plate, McLaren handed the ball to his new left-handed relief specialist, Eric O’Flaherty.
The Rangers pounced on him.
Hamilton, Hank Blalock and David Murphy – all left-handed hitters – got hits off O’Flaherty and the Rangers scored twice to take a 3-1 lead. Blalock and Murphy both doubled into the right-field corner.
The Mariners came back in the eighth to take the lead, just like they did in Monday’s victory.
They sent nine hitters to the plate in the eighth after the Rangers had scored twice in the top of the inning to break a 1-1 tie.
Jose Vidro reached when shortstop Michael Young fielded an easy grounder but threw a sinker to Ben Broussard at first base. The ball skipped into the camera well and Vidro cruised into second.
Kenji Johjima followed with a single to left, moving Vidro to third, and Yuniesky Betancourt drilled an opposite-field RBI single to right, making the score 3-2. Betancourt’s hit also sent pinch runner Charlton Jimerson to third.
Ichiro Suzuki hit a grounder to second that Ian Kinsler bobbled for an error. Jimerson crossed the plate to tie the score at 3 and Betancourt reached third.
Rangers reliever Joaquin Benoit then threw a wild pitch that scored Betancourt for a 4-3 Mariners lead.
It lasted only minutes.
With Putz on the mound in the ninth for the second straight game, Kinsler lined a leadoff single up the middle.
Putz struck out Young, but he threw a first-pitch fastball that Hamilton pounded, and the ball easily cleared the right field fence for a two-run homer and a 5-4 Rangers lead.
For all the pain the Mariners’ relievers absorbed, they did little with numerous offensive opportunities.
Despite producing the go-ahead runs in the eighth, the Mariners left 15 runners on base for the game. The last was Betancourt, who doubled with two outs in the ninth before Ichiro grounded out to end the game.