Mariners Game Recap: Mariners Drop First Game to Texas

The Mariners fell to the Rangers in the series opener on Friday night in Arlington, TX.

The Seattle Mariners (31-23) surrendered the opener of a three-game series against the Texas Rangers (32-22), losing 7-3 on Friday night. The clubs were tied for first place coming into this game, but the victory leaves Texas alone atop the West….for now. Taijuan Walker (2-6, 3.94 ERA) dropped his third consecutive start, and Yu Darvish (2-0, 3.38 ERA) pitched 5 and 2/3 innings to earn his second win in as many starts.

Taijuan Walker started this game for the Mariners. For what seems to be a trend of the last couple starts, Mariners pitchers have gotten behind early. From the beginning, Tai’s command was spotty and his velocity was only sitting around 91-92 mph, a couple ticks lower than normal. The Rangers made him pay in the first inning. Ian Desmond hit a  single to right field, Nomar Mazara walked to set a three-run home run at the hands of Adrian Beltre. Tai ended up throwing five innings, allowing six runs on nine hits with only two strikeouts. Cody Martin came on in relief for Taijuan and turned in a solid three innings of work, yielding four hits and only one run on two strikeouts.

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Yu Darvish was making his second start this season since coming back from Tommy John surgery last year. Yu made his first start last week against the Pirates and earned the win in dominating fashion. Tonight’s start reflected the sharp performance Yu showed in Pittsburg. Yu wasn’t completely invincible, as he ended allowing three Mariners to cross the plate, a Seth Smith sacrifice fly, Luis Sardinas groundout RBI and a Kyle Seager single. Darvish did have a limit of 95 pitches for tonight’s game, so he exited in the 5th with two outs to a standing ovation from the crowd at Globe Life Park.

The Mariners are tied for the most come from behind victories at 15. Tonight just was not their night as they faced a revitalized Yu Darvish when they themselves were hungover with the feelings from an exhausting and historic comeback win against the San Diego Padres last night. In the past few games the Mariners have scored 47 runs, but they were held to just three tonight against Darvish. Offense really has not been that significant of a problem the past month or so, but pitching has been a different story as of late. Once the Mariners’ starting pitchers shake off this turn of starts, I’m confident they can get back to a string of quality starts.

Next: M's call up Cody Martin, Joel Peralta DFA'd

Tomorrow the Mariners (31-22) battle the Texas Rangers (31-22). Nathan Karns (5-1, 3.34 ERA) will start for the Mariners. Martin Perez (3-4, 3.12  ERA) will be making the start for the Texas Rangers. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 PM PT at Globe Life Park in Arlington, TX.