Robinson Cano went 4-for-5 with a double and two RBIs and Cameron Maybin was 3-for-5 with a double and four RBIs as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Texas Rangers 12-6 Friday night.
The Mariners (87-73) snapped a two-game losing streak and pulled within a game of the last-place Rangers (67-93) in the season series between the teams. Texas is the only team in the American League West that Seattle has a losing record against this season.
Staked to a 9-0 lead, Mariners left-hander Wade LeBlanc (9-5) nearly didn't qualify for the victory. In five innings, LeBlanc allowed six runs (five earned) on six hits, with two walks and six strikeouts.
LeBlanc allowed four runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth as the Rangers cut their deficit to 9-6.
Rangers starter Martin Perez (2-7), a left-hander, didn't make it out of the second inning.
Perez walked the bases loaded with one out before Maybin lined a run-scoring single into right field. After a strikeout, Perez walked Mitch Haniger to force in the second run. That was it for Perez, who walked five in 1 2/3 innings.
Left-hander Jeffrey Springs replaced Perez and got Jean Segura to hit a fly ball just shy of the warning track in right field. But the ball glanced off the end of the glove of outfielder Nomar Mazara, with three runs scoring and Segura reaching second on the error.
Cano then lined a run-scoring single to right and Nelson Cruz brought him home with double to center field, making it 7-0.
The Mariners tacked on two more runs in the third. With one out, Guillermo Heredia singled and Maybin followed with a run-scoring double to center. An out later, Cano hit a run-scoring single to center off right-hander Eddie Butler.
A two-run homer by Robinson Chirinos, his 18th of the season, capped the Rangers' four-run fourth, following run-scoring doubles by Adrian Beltre and Mazara.
Elvis Andrus' run-scoring double and a sacrifice fly by Beltre pulled Texas within 9-6 in the fifth.
It stayed that way until the eighth, when the Mariners added some insurance runs on Heredia's ground-rule RBI double and a two-run single by Maybin.
--Field Level Media