Rangers outlast Mariners

SEATTLE – With a team batting average that’s next-to-last in the American League, these aren’t the big-bopping Texas Rangers of years past.

That still doesn’t mean it’s wise to wage a game of last-hitter-standing with them.

The Seattle Mariners found that out Friday night, when they lost the lead three times and never worked a 1-2-3 inning against the Rangers in a 9-8 loss at Safeco Field.

The game wasn’t decided until the final pitch of the ninth inning, when Rangers closer Eric Gagne struck out Richie Sexson with a runner on base.

The teams combined for 28 hits off 11 pitchers, who also contributed to the rampage by issuing 10 walks and hitting two batters, plus a wild pitch and a balk. The teams combined to leave 23 runners on base.

The carnage went well beyond the pitching.

The Mariners finished the game without two of their starters – right fielder Jose Guillen was hit by a pitch on his right elbow in the third inning and left the game after the fifth, and third baseman Adrian Beltre sprained his left thumb while trying to make a diving stop in the eighth. The Mariners weren’t sure of the status of either player for tonight’s game.

The Rangers lost first baseman Mark Teixeira when he was hit below his left eye by Ichiro Suzuki’s throw from center field as he slid into the plate in the third inning. He suffered a mild concussion and was listed day-to-day.

Mariners manager Mike Hargrove also wasn’t around at the finish, having left midway through the game to fly home to Cleveland for his daughter’s high school graduation.

Among the dizzying offensive numbers were a few of importance for the Mariners.

Ichiro’s first-inning single extended his hitting streak to 25 games, breaking Joey Cora’s 1997 franchise record. Sexson had three hits, including a home run in the seventh inning that tied the score 8-8, and finally pulled his batting average to better than .200.

“Ichiro is kind of like (Ken) Griffey. Every night’s a new adventure,” said bench coach John McLaren, who will handle the team while Hargrove is gone. “Everybody is amazed at what he does. He hits balls hard, he hits them soft. He finds ways to find holes. He’s a master at it.”

Perhaps most noteworthy was the big hit that wasn’t.

After Sexson’s homer tied the score, Kenji Johjima lined a single up the middle off Rangers reliever C.J. Wilson and Beltre followed it with a towering drive that seemed destined for the patio area beyond the center field fence.

That’s where it would have landed without a magnificent leap by Rangers center fielder Kenny Lofton. He sprinted to the warning track and timed his jump perfectly, reaching above the wall – and some fans also trying to make the catch – to snatch the ball, and then throwing back to the infield, where Johjima was doubled off first base to end the inning and preserve the 8-8 tie.

“It was the play of the game,” McLaren said. “I kind of wish a fan had reached over and helped out a little bit, but it didn’t happen.”

The Rangers broke the tie in the eighth when Ian Kinsler doubled and Laird bunted for a single off reliever Sean Green before Lofton hit a sacrifice fly off left-hander George Sherrill that scored Kinsler with what became the winning run.

A game like that seemed unlikely with a couple of veterans pitching – Jarrod Washburn for the Mariners and Kevin Millwood for the Rangers.

Washburn clearly wasn’t sharp, allowing nine hits and four earned runs in 3 2/3 innings, trailing 5-4 when he left the game.

“He’s going to give you everything he’s got,” McLaren said. “But he just wasn’t in sync tonight.”

Sean White took over and got the final out of the fourth inning, then barely made it through the fifth. He did, but not without coughing up two runs as the Rangers used one hit, two walks, a hit batter, a wild pitch and a balk that tied the score 7-7.

The Mariners treated Millwood just as rough, tagging him for seven runs (four of them earned) on 10 hits.

By the end, the M’s couldn’t get the one big hit needed to overcome the Rangers’ one-run lead.

They had a chance in the ninth against Gagne, who walked Jose Vidro to lead off the inning. Gagne struck out Ben Broussard, got Raul Ibanez to hit a fielder’s choice grounder, then struck out Sexson to end the game.

“It was a wild game, I’ll say that,” McLaren said. “We didn’t pitch real well, but we battled.”