Derek Holland scattered four hits over 6.2 innings, Nelson Cruz homered, and the Texas Rangers defeated Felix Hernandez and the Mariners 5-2 Saturday night at Safeco Field, a season-high eighth consecutive defeat. The Mariners (20-29), who were within one game of .500 a week ago, close out the three-game series with Texas Sunday afternoon.
Since taking two of three in New York May 14-16, the Mariners have been swept in four by the Cleveland Indians (three walk-off losses), buried 19-1 in a two-game series in Anaheim, and thumped twice by the Rangers, who lead the AL West by 5½ games. The Mariners are now 12 games out in the division race.
The Rangers (32-17) battered Hernandez for five earned runs on 11 hits in 5.2 innings. Although he fanned nine and walked just one, Hernandez suffered his second consecutive loss. He has not recorded a win since beating the Pittsburgh Pirates May 8.
Hernandez is 12-18 in his career (since 2005) against the Rangers. No other team has beaten him more than 12 times (Angels).
Holland ran his career mark against Seattle to 8-2 by allowing just four hits — no earned runs — in 6.2 innings. He struck out 10, walked three and threw 77 of his 119 pitches for strikes. Seattle just one extra-base hit and four singles.
The Rangers got to Hernandez for three runs in the second inning on consecutive singles by Mitch Moreland, A.J. Pierzynski and Jurickson Profar and a two-run double by David Murphy. The Mariners came back to make it 3-2 in the third on a two-run double by Kendrys Morales. Texas increased its lead to 4-2 in the fifth on Cruz’s home run, his 12th of the season.
The Rangers took a 5-2 lead in the sixth when Murphy singled, driving home Leonys Martin, who tripled.
Sunday, Seattle will send Hisashi Iwakuma (5-1, 2.37) to oppose RHP Nick Tepesch. On Monday, the Mariners begin a four-game stretch against the San Diego Padres. The first two are at Safeco Field Monday-Tuesday and the second two at Petco Park Wednesday-Thursday.
NOTES: Carlos Triunfel, called up from AAA Tacoma, got the start at second base in place of Dustin Ackley and went 0-for-3 . . . Triunfel’s start meant that manager Eric Wedge had used 46 lineups in 49 games . . . The Mariners will wear desert-camouflage caps with authentic digital patterns licensed from the Marine Corps Monday for Memorial Day’s 1:10 p.m. PT game against the San Diego Padres . . . Jesus Montero had a double and a triple in AAA Tacoma’s 9-5 win over Reno Saturday night. Franklin Gutierrez homered and Blake Beavan went 6.2 innings for the win.
6 Comments
Not even June and the seasons over – yawn……
Until Lincoln and Armstrong are gone, the Mariners won’t go anywhere.
True, sadly. They have post-holed the franchise. Look what Lincoln had– Lou and a winning team, a full stadium, community support. Look what Lincoln created– a loser franchise in every regard. A task very few would be suited to perform.
Can somebody explain to me what happened to the Lincoln/Armstrong “hot seat” promise?
Can somebody tell me why the Board is such a complacent bunch of go-along/get-along spectators, just sitting quietly as the franchise builds equity by the default of just being an MLB franchise? Can they really be so unconscionably avaricious that they have no regard for the community trust (a MLB franchise) they have been given to oversee and direct towards viability? I wonder if they are simply cowards before the almighty Nintendo ownership and the Lincoln old school dictatorship style?
35,000 last night on Felix Hernandez Bobblehead Night.
As long as M’s fans are content with cheap trinket giveaway nights, the owners see no reason to make any changes.
I believe 35k is solely because of the a perfect storm of start of summer holiday weekend, Felix, the chance to see Nolan Ryan’s club and…bobbleheads. It’s become a rariity, not the norm. Ticket sales down 30%+ during On -Track-Jack’s tenure ( and no improvement in on field or minor league prospects in the offing). That free fall looks great compared to Lincoln’s record. The trend is downward, and the steeper the trajectory, the sooner the board will be forced to change something at the top — or at least start to make some (leaked) public noise about it.
Promote boycott. Fans gotta stay home.
It was all about the bobbleheads. People LEAVE Seattle on Memorial Day weekend, so that does not help attendance. And Texas plays a lot of games in Seattle every year. Felix pitches about every 5th game at Safeco Field.
It was the bobbleheads.
I agree that fans should boycott. But, they apparently don’t care about the baseball. They just care about the cheap trinket giveaway nights.
I expected the M’s to win the Texas series. I did not give Texas enough credit. They are better than I thought. And the M’s might be even worse than I thought, which is pretty bad.
Last night is why the M’s are paying Felix $25 million per year — to stop losing streaks. Felix did not come through. I thought at the time that that was a really stupid contract for the M’s to sign Felix to, particularly if the M’s’ payroll is going to be $100 million or less, that means that Felix will make 1/4 of the total team payroll, which is a huge mistake. And that was even if Felix was basically unbeatable. Turns out he is not unbeatable at all.
Speaking of last night. Why didn’t Felix start Friday night on 4 days rest instead of the M’s #5 starter? Felix normally starts every five days, and Friday night would have been his normal day to start, and would have allowed the M’s to skip their #5 starter. I think most teams would have done that. You want to give your $25 million/year pitcher as many starts per season as possible. Unless the M’s held Felix until Saturday so he could pitch on Felix Hernandez Bobblehead Night.
Would anyone put it past the M’s to manipulate the starting pitching around bobblehead nights, instead of doing what would give the team the best chance to win as many games as possible?