Marcus Semien homered and had four hits and three RBIs and the Texas Rangers racked up 19 hits while producing a 16-6 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Saturday afternoon in Arlington, Texas.
Corey Seager had three hits, three runs and three RBIs and Nathaniel Lowe had three hits and three RBIs for the Rangers. Lowe, Mitch Garver and Leody Taveras also homered for Texas.
Semien extended his MLB-high hitting streak to 22 games for the Rangers, who scored three runs in each of the first two innings to start their easy victory.
Texas starter Andrew Heaney allowed three earned runs in three innings, and exited after facing four batters in the fourth. Heaney allowed six hits and four walks, while striking out five. Josh Sborz (2-2) earned the win, firing two scoreless innings without a baserunner allowed.
In his major league debut, Seattle’s Bryson Woo (0-1) struggled, and was replaced after giving up six runs on seven hits in two innings. Woo was recalled up from Double-A Arkansas for Saturday’s start.
Heaney struck out the game’s first two batters, but Seattle then tallied three straight singles. The last of the singles, off the bat of Jarred Kelenic, scored Julio Rodriguez, giving the Mariners a 1-0 lead.
Texas soon erased the deficit, going up 6-1 behind consecutive three-run innings. Two batters into the bottom of the first, Seager tied the score with an RBI single, and drove in Semien, who led off with a double. Jonah Heim’s two-out double brought Seager and Adolis Garcia across the plate.
Heaney ran into trouble in the fourth. A walk to Tom Murphy, followed by a single from AJ Pollock, and an RBI double from Jose Caballero began the fourth. When Heaney walked J.P. Crawford on five pitches, loading the bases, Texas summoned Sborz from the bullpen.
Seattle scored once with Sborz on the mound, as Pollock crossed the plate from third on Rodriguez’s RBI groundout. But the Mariners came away with nothing more.
Texas tacked on four more runs between the fourth and fifth innings, culminating with a three-run homer from Taveras, as the advantage widened to 10-3.
The home runs then came in rapid succession; Semien sent a three-run blast over the left field wall in the seventh, and Lowe followed with a two-run homer of his own later in the inning. Garver added one more in the eighth, extending the lead to 16-3.
The Mariners pushed three across with two outs in the ninth, behind an RBI single from Ty France and two-run single by Teoscar Hernandez, but Texas comfortably cruised to its second straight win over Seattle.
–Field Level Media