J.P. Crawford hit a grand slam and Ty France and Josh Rojas added solo homers as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Texas Rangers 8-0 Friday night to tighten the American League West race.
The Mariners (87-73) pulled within two games of the division-leading Rangers (89-71) and remained a game behind Houston in the chase for the AL’s third and final wild-card berth.
Crawford, whose two-run double with two outs in the ninth inning Thursday gave the Mariners a 3-2 walk-off victory in the series opener, went deep to right with the bases loaded in the fourth Friday off Rangers reliever Brock Burke to give Seattle an 8-0 lead.
Veteran right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (12-5) took the loss. He allowed seven runs on five hits in 3 1/3 innings, with two walks and five strikeouts.
Reliever Trent Thornton (1-2) was credited with the victory as the Mariners’ bullpen combined for 5 1/3 scoreless innings of one-hit relief.
Mariners rookie Bryan Woo started and pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings, replaced after throwing 82 pitches. The right-hander surrendered two hits, walked three and struck out five.
With the game scoreless, Woo escaped a bases-loaded jam in the third, getting Josh Jung to fly out to left to end the inning.
That seemed to spark the Mariners, as France led off the bottom of the inning with a liner that just missed reaching the second deck in left field. An out later, Rojas went deep to right-center. Seattle wasn’t done, as Crawford drew a walk and Eugenio Suarez hit a two-out double to center to make it 3-0.
In the fourth, Seattle’s Teoscar Hernandez grounded a leadoff single to left, Mike Ford walked and France was hit by a pitch to load the bases. With one out, Rojas grounded a single to center to make it 4-0 and end Eovaldi’s night. Crawford then slammed a 3-1 fastball from Burke to double the Mariners’ lead.
–Field Level Media
