Texas Rangers dig early hole; Seattle Mariners keep offense buried
Starting pitcher Brett Martin never made it out of the first inning, and the day for the Texas Rangers went downhill from there.
The Seattle Mariners scored four in the first and kept piling on Sunday afternoon to take the series finale 11-3 at Globe Life Park.
Martin, who was starting for the second time as an opener, was pulled with two on and two out. He was charged with four runs on three hits, two walks and a hit batter. The two outs he recorded came via strikeout.
Luke Farrell took over and pitched 2 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on solo homers by Tom Murphy and Daniel Vogelbach in the third inning, which pushed the Mariners’ lead to 6-1.
The Rangers cut the deficit to 6-3 with two runs in the third. Nick Solak drove in Elvis Andrus with a triple down the right-field line, and Solak scored on Rougned Odor’s groundout. But that was it for the Texas offense, which has struggled to score runs for much of the second half.
Four Seattle relievers combined to hold Texas to three hits and struck out six over the final four innings.
One of the few bright spots about the day for the Rangers was the return of veteran right-hander Edinson Volquez, who pitched a scoreless seventh inning. It was his first appearance since going on the injured list with an elbow injury in early April.
“It was good to see him back out there,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “I think everybody was happy to see his arm, see that windup that we all know and love, just to see him kind of enjoying the game.”
This story was originally published September 1, 2019 at 3:31 PM.
