The Rangers had chances, but Seattle made the plays that mattered and Texas came up short in a 3-2 loss Sunday afternoon.
Texas got on the board first and later trimmed the margin to one, but the offense never found the extra hit it needed. The Rangers managed only two solo homers, went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, and stranded seven.
Kade Anderson, making his fourth MLB start, turned in his best outing so far against a Texas lineup that had put up ten runs on Seattle less than 24 hours earlier. The Mariners’ rookie allowed one run in six innings, with only one of the Rangers’ two homers coming against him. Texas had traffic in several innings, but it never turned into a big inning.
Cody Bradford took the loss after Seattle scratched out two, two-out RBI hits in separate innings. The first tie came after Cal Raleigh worked a walk and moved up only because a foul out to the backstop wall let him tag and take second. Taylor Ward followed with a bloop single over the head of Justin Foscue to make it 1-1.
Bradford then looked like he was about to escape another inning cleanly. With two outs, he induced a ground ball to Corey Seager that seemed headed for the final out, but the ball hit off the second-base bag and turned into a single. Ward drew a walk, and Cole Young doubled both runners home to put Seattle ahead 3-1.
Texas kept hanging around, and Corey Seager brought the Rangers within a run in the eighth with a solo home run. But the comeback stalled there. The Rangers got a couple of chances in the ninth, only to see both end in strikeouts.
The loss left Texas still trying to claw back to .500, with fewer chances left for the results to carry real weight.
Player of the Game: Burger hit a second inning solo home run for his 26th dong of the year which broke a tie with Joc Pederson for the current team leader in long balls.
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