Rangers drop opener against Mariners, drop deeper in standings

If the Texas Rangers have any dreams left of earning a postseason spot, they need to start winning.

Their first game without ace Yu Darvish, catcher Jonathan Lucroy and reliever Jeremy Jeffress — all traded away for prospects in the previous 24 hours — on the last day of July could have been something of a page-turner on all of the .500 and sub-.500 baseball the club has played in 2017.

Instead, it turned out much the same.

The Rangers made a season-high four errors and dropped the opener 6-4 to the Seattle Mariners on Monday night at Globe Life Park.

Rougned Odor made two throwing errors, including one on a relay throw to first base on a double play attempt in the ninth that moved the go-ahead run to second base. After Alex Claudio put Jean Segura on, he was called for his second balk of the game, which moved both runners into scoring position with one out.

Pitching coach Doug Brocail, out to talk to Claudio after the balk, was ejected by home plate umpire Doug Eddings.

Robinson Cano singled on a liner over right fielder Shin-Soo Choo to drive in both runs to give the Mariners’ a 6-4 lead.

Cole Hamels allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits, a walk and a hit batter over six innings. His defense committed three errors behind him, including a throwing error by Adrian Beltre that led to an unearned run in Hamels’ sixth and final inning.

The Rangers led 4-0 after two innings behind Odor’s two-run homer in the first and two more runs in the second on Carlo Gomez’s homer and Elvis Andrus’ run-scoring single. The Rangers had five hits in the first two innings against Felix Hernandez but added just one more the next seven innings. They struck out 13 times.

The first four Mariners reached in the fourth inning on two doubles, a single and a hit batter. Left fielder Drew Robinson let Danny Valencia’s single roll under his glove and to the wall, which allowed an extra run to score and Valencia to third. He scored when the Rangers couldn’t complete a 4-6-3 double play quick enough, which pulled the Mariners to within 4-3.

The Mariners tied it with a run in the sixth when Guillermo Heredia reached on a throwing error by Beltre and scored on Leonys Martin’s triple to the the wall in right-center.

This story was originally published July 31, 2017 at 10:27 PM with the headline "Rangers drop opener against Mariners, drop deeper in standings."