Lewis pitches Rangers past Mariners in series opener

Colby Lewis allowed one run in six innings, at one point retiring 13 straight, and Rougned Odor drove in three runs and Prince Fielder pushed home two as the Texas Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners 7-3.

The Rangers collected 14 hits, including three by Ryan Rua and two apiece by Nomar Mazara and Brett Nicholas. Nicholas also scored two runs in his first career game, including one on Mazara’s sacrifice fly to cap a three-run seventh.　

Hitting: The Rangers collected eight hits in the first four innings against Hisashi Iwakuma, their pitching nemesis the past few seasons, but scored only three runs. ... Two of the runs came with two outs, the first on an Elvis Andrus blooper in the second to score Ian Desmond and another in the fourth on a two-out double by Rougned Odor that scored Mitch Moreland. ... Nomar Mazara singled in his first two at-bats, making him the fifth player in club history with at least five hits in his first two career games. ... Brett Nicholas doubled in the seventh for his first career hit and scored on a two-out single by Prince Fielder for a 4-1 lead. ... The Rangers got four straight one-out singles in the eighth, the fourth being a two-run single by Odor, in a three-run seventh.

Pitching: Colby Lewis allowed a two-out run in the first inning on a Nelson Cruz double, but he found a groove and retired the next 13 batters. He struck out six in the stretch, including four straight in the second and third. ... Leonys Martin started the sixth with an infield single, and Kyle Seager singled to center two batters later. Lewis, though, got Robinson Cano and Cruz on his next three pitches to end the inning. ... With Lewis’ pitch count at 90, Andrew Faulkner entered for the seventh and gave up a one-out walk and single before Sam Dyson entered and got out of the inning. But he had to get a nice play from Mitch Moreland on a hot Nori Aoki grounder with the bases loaded. ... Cruz hit a two-run homer in the eighth off Keone Kela. ... Jake Diekman was perfect in the ninth.

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 12:10 AM with the headline "Lewis pitches Rangers past Mariners in series opener."