Randy Arozarena’s clutch home run can’t save Mariners in extra-innings loss

SEATTLE – The Mariners almost squeezed out another walk-off win against the Texas Rangers.

Seattle fell to their AL West rivals in extra innings, 6-4, in front of a crowd of 37,226 at T-Mobile Park on Saturday afternoon. It was their first home loss to Texas this season, after sweeping the Rangers in a homestand back in April.

Seattle floated into the ballpark on Cloud Nine for Game 3 of its four-game series with the Rangers, following J.P. Crawford’s walk-off home run late Friday night to give the Mariners a 4-3 comeback win.

In that game, Crawford crushed a 95-mph fastball 370 feet to right field in the ninth inning, sending the crowd into an electric frenzy. The veteran shortstop’s teammates mobbed him at home plate, jumping up and down in unison, before dumping a bucket of water on Crawford’s head.

After a two-run homer by Randy Arozarena in the 10th inning, the team had visions of a similar celebration for Saturday.

The Rangers opened the 10th inning with a single by catcher Kyle Higashioka to score pinch-runner Ezequiel Duran, who started at second. Higashioka scored four batters later on Marcus Semien’s groundout to give Texas a 4-2 lead.

A day after J.P. Crawford’s walkoff heroics, Arozarena’s two-run homer opened the bottom of the 10th inning and tied the game at 4-all. He flashed the crowd his signature arms-crossed pose before heading into the dugout.

“Coming back again in the extra innings with the home run by Randy, again to tie it back up in the tenth, (that was) huge,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said after the game. “We just weren’t able to come out on top of this today. But a great effort on all our part, all those guys’ part.”

But the Rangers again answered with two runs in the 11th inning. Wyatt Langford’s single to right field brought Adolis Garcia across home plate, and Ezequiel Duran followed that with another single to score Sam Haggerty.

Higashioka opened the scoring on Saturday with a two-run homer to left field on a 2-2 pitch in the top of the third. He brought home former Mariner Rowdy Tellez, who had reached first on a ground ball to second.

After giving up four hits, a walk and two runs in 87 pitches, Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo was sent to the dugout by manager Dan Wilson during the fourth inning and replaced by reliever Carlos Vargas.

“The pitches were fine,” Castillo said about his performance. “If you look at it, I only gave up one walk. This is just a team that made a lot of contact, made a lot of foul balls, and was having me up there, continuing to battle and battle. That’s just what led to those full counts.”

Held scoreless through five innings, the Mariners regained some of their recent momentum in the bottom of the sixth to knot the game at 2.

Crawford brought his previous night’s swagger to kick things off with a ground-rule double down the right-field line and advanced to third on a single to center by Arozarena.

Crawford then scored on a disengagement violation by Rangers pitcher Merrill Kelly. Arozarena followed him across home plate two batters later after Julio Rodriguez doubled to center field.

The Mariners had an opportunity to barge ahead with the bases loaded in the seventh inning, but both Arozarena and Cal Raleigh struck out to ruin the threat.

“We created some traffic,” Wilson said. “We really did a good job of that late, getting some guys on, some really good at-bats, and just weren’t able to get them in.”

Prospective AL MVP Raleigh went 0 for 5 on the day with five strikeouts

“He’s in a good spot,” Wilson added about Raleigh. “It was just one of those days for him. We all have those days. That’s going to happen. That’s baseball.”

The loss was the Mariners’ 17th extra-inning game this season, tied for the most in MLB with the Boston Red Sox.

Next step for Robles

Injured outfielder Victor Robles advanced to the next phase of his recovery Saturday thanks to a sliding pad.

Robles spent about 15 minutes in the outfield doing a mix of diving and sliding along with first base coach Eric Young Jr. as he started doing impact drills to test the strength and integrity of his injured left shoulder. Robles started with controlled dives as if he was going after a fly ball and then advanced to a series of feet-first and head-first slides on the pad.

Robles gave a thumbs-up as he walked off the field. He took batting practice on the field off a pitching machine in West Sacramento earlier this week.