Errors costly for Seattle in loss to Rangers

ARLINGTON, Texas – Seattle Mariners third baseman Adrian Beltre has played Gold Glove-caliber defense this season, but two uncharacteristically bad throws by him undid Seattle on Saturday.

Particularly damaging was a wild throw in the seventh that allowed the Rangers to score the go-ahead run in their 5-3 victory, and helped make a mess of reliever Rick White’s Mariners debut.

With the score tied at 3, White yielded a one-out single to Travis Metcalf in the seventh. Ian Kinsler, who hit a three-run homer off Horacio Ramirez after a Beltre throwing error in the fifth prolonged the inning, then hit a slow roller to third.

Beltre makes the charging play as well as anyone in baseball, but this time his off-balance throw was well up the first-base line and eluded a sprawling Richie Sexson.

Metcalf came all the way around to score the tiebreaking run, while Kinsler ended up on third. Kinsler quickly scored as well on a nifty squeeze by Gerald Laird in an act of self-preservation on an inside pitch, reminiscent of a successful squeeze by Seattle’s Jamie Burke earlier in the season.

In addition to his throwing errors, Beltre grounded into a double play to end the game.

Beltre did not make himself available to reporters after the game.

“He’s been so good at third that you rarely see that,” Seattle first baseman Richie Sexson said. “Everyone is entitled to a bad throw. Unfortunately they made us pay for it.”

In the top of the seventh inning, the Mariners had the potential go-ahead run thrown out at the plate. With two outs and runners on first and second, Kenji Johjima greeted reliever Frank Francisco with a sharp single to left.

Mindful of a poor throw earlier in the game by Texas left fielder Jason Botts, third-base coach Carlos Garcia waved home Jose Guillen, but this time Botts threw a strike, and catcher Gerald Laird tagged out Guillen.

The game, witnessed by 47,977 at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, marked another modest step forward for Mariners starter Ramirez, albeit with a major stumble.

After breezing through the first four innings, blanking the Rangers on two hits while throwing an economical 45 pitches, Ramirez let a questionable umpire’s call in the fifth inning haunt him.

With a runner on first and two outs, Metcalf hit a sharp grounder to Beltre, who fielded the tricky hop nicely but threw high to first.

Sexson had to come off the bag to receive the throw, but appeared to put a sweeping tag on Metcalf going by. Umpire Jim Wolf, who had drawn the ire of Guillen on a play at second on Friday, saw it differently, ruling Metcalf safe as Sexson protested to no avail.

Sure enough, Ramirez’s next pitch was blasted over the left-field fence by Texas leadoff man Kinsler for a three-run home run – all of them unearned – that tied the score.

White, the veteran reliever recently called up from Tacoma, started his Mariners career well enough, though he would falter later. Replacing Ramirez with two on and two out, he induced a pop fly to second from Nelson Cruz to end the threat.

Ramirez worked 5 2/3 innings and gave up just those three unearned runs on four hits, with three walks (two in his final inning).

The Mariners fell victim to a familiar plight in this series, a failure to get potential runs home. They had a man at second with one out in the third, first and second with no outs in the fourth, second and third with one out in the fifth, man at third with one out in the sixth, and man on second with one out in the seventh. None came around to score.

The Mariners scored in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Sexson that exploited a poor throw by Botts. Sexson’s fly was to medium depth, but Botts’ throw was far off line as Raul Ibanez scored easily from third.

Seattle pushed across another run off Rangers starter Jamey Wright in the third on Jose Vidro’s RBI double. Three singles led to a third run in the fifth.