Dominic Canzone and Randy Arozarena hit back-to-back homers in the seventh inning as the Seattle Mariners rallied to defeat the Texas Rangers 6-4 Sunday afternoon in an American League West showdown at Arlington, Texas.
Ezequiel Duran went deep for the Rangers, who had won the first two games in the four-game series.
The Mariners snapped a four-game skid and moved past Houston and into second place in the division, 1 1/2 games behind the Rangers.
Reliever Gabe Speier (2-2) pitched 1 1/3 hitless innings with three strikeouts to earn the victory and Andres Munoz struck out the side in the ninth for his 18th save of the season.
Trailing 3-1 with one out in the seventh, Colt Emerson and Cole Young singled to left field off Rangers reliever Tyler Alexander. Cole Winn (5-3) was summoned from the bullpen and got Julio Rodriguez to fly out to second baseman Nicky Lopez. Calzone launched a three-run shot 400 feet down the right-field line to give the Mariners a the lead. Arozarena went deep to right-center on the next pitch to make it 5-3.
The Rangers got a run back in the eighth as Duran hit a solo shot to left with one out off Eduard Bazardo.
Seattle scored again in the ninth as Rodriguez was hit by a Peyton Gray pitch with one out and Canzone lined a run-scoring double to right, giving him four RBIs.
The Rangers wasted no time in taking the lead. Joc Pederson led off the bottom of the first with a double to center field and Wyatt Langford lined a single to left, putting runners at the corners. Duran lifted a sacrifice fly to center to make it 1-0.
Seattle tied it in the third as Young tripled to left-center with two outs on a ball that went off the end of center fielder Evan Carter’s mitt after a lengthy run. Rodriguez followed with a broken-bat single that left fielder Langford trapped with a sliding attempt at the catch.
The Rangers regained the lead with a pair of runs in the fourth. With one out, Brandon Nimmo reached on an infield single on a comebacker off the left foot of Mariners starter Logan Gilbert. Following a walk to Jake Burger, Carter lined a run-scoring single to right with Burger taking third on the throw to the plate. Lopez hit a grounder up the middle on which second baseman Young made a diving stop, but his flip to second from his mitt to shortstop Emerson covering the bag was high, allowing all runners to advance safely and Burger to score to make it 3-1.
Neither starter factored into the decision.
Gilbert allowed three runs on five hits over 5 2/3 innings. The right-hander walked two and struck out four.
Rangers righty Jacob deGrom gave up one run on seven hits in five-plus innings. He didn’t walk a batter and fanned four.
–Field Level Media
