Mariners race to big lead, hold on for 7-5 victory over Rangers

For the first eight innings Saturday, the Mariners were rolling to perhaps their most complete victory of the season.

They got the usual solid outing from starter George Kirby. Their wildly unpredictable offense showed up in productive mode, grinding through at-bats, working walks and coming up with timely hits, including Julio Rodriguez’s seventh homer of the season, the defense was making plays and the middle relievers didn’t allow a run.

Up six runs on the defending World Series champions and the team they are trying to distance themselves from in the American League West standings, a packed T-Mobile Park danced and celebrated what appeared to be a decisive win over the Texas Rangers.

Instead, the Mariners, who can’t help but find drama in any situation and seem allergic to easy wins, made getting the final three outs a gut-wrenching ordeal for the 43,448 fans in attendance.

Stepping to the plate as the winning run with two outs in the ninth and runners on the corners, Corey Seager, who has been held hitless in this series, ripped a hard ground ball to the right side of the infield. Rookie Tyler Locklear made a diving stop on the ball, scrambled to his feet and raced to first for the final out of a 7-5 victory.

The Mariners clinched a series win and will go for a sweep on Sunday with Logan Gilbert on the mound. They are now 42-31 on the season with a 26-12 record at home. They moved 7 1/2 games up on Texas.

“Fun game,” manager Scott Servais tried to deadpan before laughing at his joke and continuing with the humor. “Yeah, the ninth inning was, you know, we didn’t want to enjoy a nice win. We had to make it interesting and make sure all 43,000 people got their money’s worth.”

Servais wasn’t laughing in the top of the ninth. He brought in reliever Eduard Bazardo to mop up the final inning with a 7-1 lead.

Instead, Bazardo made a mess of an inning where he simply needed to throw strikes and get outs. He did neither, giving up hits to four of the first five batters he faced to allow a run to score. With the bases loaded, he walked pinch-hitter Josh Smith on four pitches that reduced the Mariners’ lead to 7-3.

With Marcus Semien coming to the plate as the tying run with the bases loaded, Servais had to call on Ryne Stanek for a second straight day to clean up the mess. But Stanek couldn’t do it without allowing some damage. Semien singled to right field to score a pair of runs to make it 7-5 and bring Seager to the plate.

Locklear, who has always been a hitter first, struggled with making routine plays at first base during spring training. It was something that the Mariners wanted him focus on when he reported to Double-A Arkansas to start the season.

“When you throw something at him, he’s gonna work on it,” Servais said. “He’s gonna say ‘OK, I’ll show you I will get better at this.’ Huge play. He is a rookie out there, he’s 23 years old and the game is on the line and the ball is coming at you and it’s ‘I gotta make the play and win the game’ and he did today.”

Servais didn’t want the mini meltdown in the ninth to be the lasting reminder of the game.

“I don’t want that to overshadow all the positives today,” Servais said. “There really was a lot. We continue to play good defense. We pitched very well, but for me, the offense and the offensive pressure we were able to put on them all day with guys stealing bases, creating traffic and we walked seven or eight times. Just awesome at-bats against a good starting pitcher.”

The Mariners knocked Rangers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi out of the game after just three innings. Seattle picked up a run in the first on an RBI single from Cal Raleigh. They stretched it to a 4-0 lead in the third inning. Josh Rojas walked for a second straight plate appearance off Eovaldi and then watched Julio Rodriguez launch a towering fly ball into The ‘Pen in left-center to make it 3-0.

“He’s starting to come,” Servais said. “As the weather heats up Julio starts to heat up with it. I just love the fact he pulled the ball in the air. I think that pitch this year, we have seen him right on it and just miss it or pop it up probably at least 10 times. And he didn’t miss it.”

The Mariners weren’t finished. Raleigh walked, stole second (not a typo) and scored on Dom Canzone’s single to left.

A four-run lead was plenty for Kirby. He worked six innings, allowing one run on three hits with two walks and six strikeouts to improve to the 6-5 on the season. He punctuated his outing by striking out the side in the sixth, blowing high fastballs past hitters in dominant fashion.

“I was spraying a little bit and those two walks are annoying,” Kirby said. “But I dialed it in when I needed to, so happy to go six.”

Over his last five starts at T-Mobile, Kirby has allowed three runs in 32 innings pitched for a 0.84 ERA with 38 strikeouts and three walks.

The Mariners continued to add on thanks largely to Rojas. He smashed his fourth homer of the season — a solo blast to right-center — in the seventh inning and then delivered again in the eighth with a bases-loaded single to score two more runs that proved to be critical.

“They have a really good offense,” Rojas said. “You’ve got to pile it on as much as you can the whole game because they can, at any point, put together an inning like they did in the ninth.”

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