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Seattle Mariners

Mariners Pregame: Cano doubles up, Paxton shines; lineups and starters

Seattle Mariners’ Robinson Cano follows through on an RBI double to right during the third inning against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017, in Arlington, Texas. (Tony Gutierrez / AP)
By Dave Nichols daven@spokesman.com(509) 459-5441

Game 109: Seattle Mariners (55-53) vs. Texas Rangers (50-56) at 5:05 p.m. at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas.

Robinson Canó collected two doubles in last night’s 8-7 win over the Rangers, giving him 499 career doubles. That’s tied for 63rd-most in Major League history with Rusty Staub.

With one more double, Canó will become the 63rd player in MLB history with at least 500 career doubles. Hall of Famer Goose Goslin and former Mariners John Olerud are tied for 61st all-time with exactly 500 career doubles. Of the 62 players with 500-plus doubles, 37 are in the Hall of Fame.

Edgar Martinez is still the leader in the Mariners clubhouse with 514 career doubles.

Awards: James Paxton was named American League Pitcher of the Month for July. He is the first Mariners pitcher to win the monthly award since Felix Hernandez in June of 2014.

Paxton was 6-0 with a 1.37 ERA (6 ER, 39 1/3 innings) with 46 strikeouts and six walks in six starts in the month of July, becoming the first pitcher in club history to earn six wins in any single calendar month. He became the seventh left-handed pitcher to earn six wins and record at least 40 strikeouts in any single calendar month since 1980, joining Randy Johnson (2000, 2002), Steve Carlton (1980), Clayton Kershaw (2014), Chuck Finley (1997) Floyd Bannister (1983) and Johan Santana (2004).

Paxton’s 1.37 ERA for the month of July is the lowest in a calendar month by a Mariners pitcher since Felix Hernandez posted a 1.22 ERA (six earned runs in 44 1/3 innings) in June of 2014.

Earlier this week, Paxton was named the American League Co-Player of the Week, sharing the honors with Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre, who tallied his 3,000th career hit on July 30.

Also, reliever Edwin Díaz was named American League Reliever of the Month for July.

Díaz was 0-1 with 8 saves and a 1.98 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 13 relief appearances in July. He limited opponents to a .163 (8 for 49) batting average and struck out 13.83 batters per nine innings.

Lineups and starters

Courtesy @MarinersPR
Courtesy @MarinersPR

Starters: LHP Ariel Miranda (7-4, 4.31) vs. RHP Andrew Cashner (6-8, 3.48)

Mariners Notes

  • The Mariners 8-7 win last night was their sixth-straight win in one-run games, dating back to July 12, giving them a season mark of 17-10 in such games. The 17-10 (.630) mark is the fourth-best record in MLB, trailing only Colorado and Houston (18-12/.667) and the Dodgers (19-10/.655).
  • Starter Erasmo Ramirez made his 2017 Mariners debut last night, becoming the 33rd pitcher to appear in a game with Seattle this season, a new franchise record (prev: 32 in 2016) and leads MLB in pitchers used so far this season.
  • Reliever Casey Lawrence picked up the win last night; he was the 18th different Seattle pitcher to record a victory this season; that’s tied with the Chicago White Sox for most in the Majors.

This Day in Mariners History

In 2013, Kendrys Morales recorded his second straight four-hit game, and extended his streak of eight consecutive at-bats with a hit, one short of the club record. The Mariners hit four home runs, but dropped an 11-8 game at Baltimore.