Texas Rangers defeat Seattle Mariners 5-4 – MLB Update
With three days left before the regular season, American League franchise Texas Rangers bounced back shattering a three-game losing streak beating division rivals Seattle Mariners 5-4 in a close ten innings confrontation Sunday, March 27 in Cactus League
outing at Peoria Sports Complex in Arizona.
Michael Young shined in his five at-bats with three hits that drove in three RBIs. Young has a five-game hitting streak and led off the Rangers in the first inning with his fly ball to centre-fielder Ryan Langerhans, as Josh Hamilton scored.
The 34-year-old designated hitter again scored when he added a double in the fifth inning removing a two runs lead the Mariners acquired in the first inning when Chone Figgins launched a huge two-run grand slam off Rangers’ starter Colby Lewis.
Right-hand pitcher Lewis, who has allowed just five runs in nine spring exhibition innings, proved costly allowing three runs on five hits over five innings. However, he added four more strike-outs to his spring record.
He still was not prepared to accept the homer off his pitching. "I'm ready for the season to start," Lewis added. "I don't know how Figgins got to that fastball up and in, maybe he was looking for it."
Seattle faced difficulty in their pitching department due to absence of starting pitcher Felix Hernandez. His substitute, Luke French remained expensive allowing three hits in nine hits over five pitches.
Right-hand Hernandez, who is scheduled to toss against the Rangers in the opening day game on Monday, made 103 throws in Minor Leagues. He expressed his magical seven innings spell striking-out ten and retired first 14 batters he faced.
"All my pitches were there," Hernandez said. "Everything's good. Now I've got to prepare for opening day and I'll be good."
Rangers made their fourth run in the sixth inning when Matt Treanor launched a solo homer off Mariners’ reliever David Pauley to grab a 4-3 advantage. Mariners tied the game with Kyle Seager’s homer to right-field in the eighth inning.
The game went to the tenth inning when Young displayed his magic again acquiring a winning single on a hit to centre-fielder Ryan Langerhans that helped Endy Chavez to score.
A little drama happened in the seventh inning when Adrian Beltre shouted after a controversial decision about a pitch. Second-base umpire Paul Schreiber asked him to leave the field. Beltre took little time to realise he was ejected from the ground.
Mariners received a blow when designated hitter Jack Cust, who is likely to be in the bull-pen for opening day, went off field after one at-bat.
"His back's a little stiff, so I don't want to take any chances this close to opening it up," Mariners' manager Eric Wedge said.
The Rangers put in a good performance as they managed to restrict the Mariners’ offence. The Mariners will be looking to improve their performance and get their offence to fire before the regular season begins.
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