No early deficit followed by a crazy comeback?
A lack of drama in the later innings?
Another comfortable win without a save situation?
It’s all so very un-Mariners compared to a season ago. It also offers another glimpse of what this team, with its offseason improvements, can be when it performs up to capabilities.
Powered by three homers and more steady starting pitching and shutdown relief work, the Mariners rolled to an easy 6-2 win Tuesday over the Texas Rangers.
It was their fourth win in five games and moved them to 6-5 on the season.
Making his first start as a member of the Mariners at T-Mobile Park and the third start in Seattle of his career, Robbie Ray delivered another typically solid if not lengthy outing. The hard-grunting lefty pitched six innings, allowing two runs on four hits with a walk and four strikeouts. He threw just 85 pitches in the outing with 57 strikes.
His teammates gave him ample run support from the first inning, grabbing a quick 3-0 lead against Rangers starter Jon Gray. With one out, the baseball magnet that is Ty France was hit by a pitch for the third time this season, and Jesse Winker worked his team-high 11th walk to bring Eugenio Suarez to the plate.
After throwing a pair of fastballs for called strikes on the outside corner, Gray tried to throw a slider just a little farther outside of the previous two pitches to see if Suarez would chase. Instead, the pitch hung in the part of the zone where Suarez could get his arms extended, sending the mistake well over the wall in dead center for his third homer of the season. The blast measured 415 feet, which was impressive considering the roof was open at the time with temperatures dropping into the 40s.
The Mariners made it 4-0 in the second inning when Jarred Kelenic continued his assault on right field foul poles around the league.
Kelenic ambushed a first-pitch fastball from Gray, yanking a screaming line drive that bounced off the foul pole in right for his third homer of the season. Two of his homers have been off the right field foul pole this season.
The Rangers picked up their first run against Ray in the third inning when Eli White led off with a double and later scored on Marcus Semien’s sacrifice fly to left field. Texas made it 4-2 in the fifth when White reached on a two-out walk and scored from first on Semien’s double into the left-field corner.
With a rested bullpen following the off day and only a two-run lead, manager Scott Servais turned the game over to his top relievers for the final three innings.
After Drew Steckenrider pitched a scoreless seventh, Seattle got two big insurance runs from an unlikely source. Abraham Toro came into the game with just two hits in 23 plate appearances this season and hadn’t hit the ball with any sort of authority. That changed on an 0-2 fastball up and out of the strike zone. Toro got on top of the 92 mph fastball from Spencer Patton, sending it into the seats in deep right-center for his first homer of the season.
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