ARLINGTON, Texas — All right, then, the season is really under way.
Just as the Seattle Mariners were battering former teammate Tom Wilhelmsen in the eighth inning on Tuesday en route to an 10-2 victory over Texas, it turned, well…tense.
Wilhelmsen had given up four runs on a home run, two doubles and another homer in quick succession, which boosted a two-run lead to six runs, when he hit Chris Iannetta in the thigh.
That prompted an ejection for Wilhelmsen from home-plate umpire Marvin Hudson as Iannetta spat a series of angry words toward Wilhelmsen while walking toward first.
“That’s just part of the game,” Iannetta said later. “It’s baseball.”
OK.
It also brought manager Scott Servais out of the dugout for pointed words (and a pointed finger) directed at Texas manager Jeff Banister, who then came barking out of the Rangers’ dugout.
They, too, chose their words carefully afterward.
“It’s baseball,” Servais said. “We’ll leave it at that. We’re going to play Texas a lot this year. We certainly know they won the division last year, and we know we have to bring our ‘A’ game every night.”
Banister said: “Emotions got high. That’s about all I can say. I saw our guys converging (on the field). I came out (of the dugout) to keep our guys in check.”
There was more to it, and much of it was caught live on the Root Sports Northwest field microphone. But Servais is right; the two teams play 17 more times this season, including four times over the next eight days.
“I like that stuff,” said Robinson Cano, whose leadoff homer started the barrage against Wilhelmsen. “You want your manager to show fire. He’s protecting his guy. You want a manager who protects you.”
When tempers cooled, the Mariners didn’t.
Luis Sardinas greeted reliever Andrew Faulkner with a two-run homer. And the lead was 10-2.
It all escalated quickly because it was a 2-2 game when Seth Smith started the seventh inning with a pinch single against reliever Tony Barnette, who was making his big-league debut.
Barnette retired the next two hitters before Leonys Martin pulled a liner into the right-field corner. When Shin-Soo Choo bobbled the pick-up, Smith scored from first and Martin ended up on third.
The scoring was a double, an RBI and Martin to third on the error. Nori Aoki followed with an RBI single to center for his first hit in eight at-bats. The Mariners led 4-2.
Then it got wild.
Cano started the eighth by crushing a first-pitch homer against Wilhelmsen. Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seager followed with doubles, which added another run.
Smith then rocked a 432-foot homer to right that made it 6-2…and Wilhelmsen followed that by hitting Iannetta.
“I would love to think it was an accident,” Cruz said, “but only (Wilhelmsen) knows.”
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