For Yu Darvish, Monday will go down as the night he won his Major League debut. For the Mariners (3-2), it will go down as the night they let Darvish and the Rangers get away.
Seattle sent 11 men to the plate in the first inning against the Japanese pitcher, who was in danger of not even getting three outs in his first inning after the Rangers spent $60 million in salary and $51-plus million in posting fees to pry him loose from Japan.
After taking a 4-0 lead, however, the Mariners made far too many mistakes en route to an eventual 11-5 loss to Texas. It was the continuation of a sad story in Texas for Seattle, which went 1-8 there in 2011.
The Mariners had four runs across the plate and the bases still loaded with one out in the first. But Brendan Ryan struck out on three pitches and Chone Figgins grounded out.
Hector Noesi, making his first start for Seattle, committed the sin of walking the first two men he faced in the bottom of the first. Then, when Ryans throw to complete an inning-ending play pulled first baseman Justin Smoak off the bag, Michael Young and Hector Cruz produced singles that cut the lead to 4-2.
What made the game anything but close was the power the Rangers flexed from that point on. One out away from escaping a third-inning jam, Noesi gave up a three-run homer to Cruz.
Texas got two more bombs in the fourth, a two-run blast against Noesi by Mitch Moreland and a solo shot by Josh Hamilton. Ian Kinsler added a three-run jolt in the eighth.
Seattle got three hits from Ichiro Suzuki and Kyle Seager, Ichiro scoring twice and Seager producing three RBIs.
2 Comments
Let me know when the Ms are relevant again….
Let me know when the Ms are relevant again….