Mariners Swept by Texas

The Mariners were swept by the Texas Rangers over the weekend. Was it a case of a good team getting hot, or deeper issues for the M’s?

The Mariners took three of four from the Padres in their home-and-home series against San Diego and headed to Arlington to face the division-leading Rangers and retake first place in the American League West. They ran into a buzzsaw at Globe Life Park.

The Rangers took game one 7-3 after another poor performance by a Mariners starter. This time it was Taijuan Walker who couldn’t put in a quality start. Walker lasted five innings and gave up six runs. The Rangers’ Yu Darvish struck out five and walked one in allowing three runs in 5.2 innings. After Walker’s bad start, Mariners starters were 2-4 with an 8.73 ERA over their past eight games heading into game two.

The starting pitching woes continued for the Mariners when Nathan Karns took the ball in the second game. He surrendered seven runs and five walks over four-plus innings in the 10-4 loss. Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus, the light-hitting Mariners-killer, drilled a three-run home run and Rangers rookie outfielder Nomar Mazara hit his 10th home run of the year.

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With the loss in the second game, the Mariners lost their first road series of the year, believe it or not. They had a chance to salvage one game of the Texas series yesterday behind the first decent start by a Mariners pitcher in what seemed like forever. Hisashi Iwakuma kept the Mariners in the game by allowing only one earned run in seven innings, but the game was lost by the defense behind him in the fifth inning.

Shortstop Luis Sardinas booted a ball to open the door for the Rangers, but the tying run was scored due to a mental mistake by fill-in left fielder Stefen Romero. Mariners killer Andrus somehow faked Romero into making a lazy throw back into the infield after catching a fly ball that allowed him to score. Mariners manager Scott Servais was not happy about it:

Routine play, catch it, get it into the infield. I’m not quite sure what he was thinking there, but in the big leagues you have to come physically and mentally ready to play every day. Because these are the best players in the world. And when you let down mentally, it can get you. That’s what it was more for me. It was a mental mistake, not so much physical.

With the sweep, the Mariners suddenly find themselves three games behind the AL-leading Rangers. In a good news-bad news injury report, the Mariners will bring back shortstop Ketel Marte tonight, who completed his rehab assignment with the Tacoma Rainiers. Center fielder Leonys Martin will be back soon as well. As for ace Felix Hernandez, word from the team is that there is no timetable for his return from a strained calf.

Next: Seahawks Player Profile: Zac Brooks

James Paxton will take the mound for the Mariners tonight as they start a four-game series at Safeco Field against the Cleveland Indians.