ARLINGTON, Texas — Here’s the first cashable dividend on that deeper lineup that Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto compiled throughout the off-season.
The Mariners stormed back Wednesday afternoon for a 9-5 victory over the Texas Rangers by scoring five runs in the ninth inning against closer Shawn Tolleson.
And it started with the bottom of the lineup with two newcomers supplying key hits. OK, there was, maybe, more than a smidge of good fortune involved, too, along two more home runs from atomic-hot Robinson Cano.
“That was the bottom third of the order that got that started,” third baseman Kyle Seager said. “As athletic as it is down there at the bottom and up at the top, the lineup is much longer.
“There are a lot of different ways to score runs.”
The Mariners trailed 5-4 when Nori Aoki opened the inning with a pinch single against Tolleson. After Ketel Marte failed twice to execute a sacrifice bunt, he blooped a single into left field.
Leonys Martin tied the game with another bloop — a double to left for his third hit of the game. Marte stopped at third. Two bloops and the game was tied.
“We’ve got like three leadoff guys,” Cano said. “We’ve got Marte, we’ve got Leonys and we’ve got Aoki even though Aoki didn’t (start) today. You’ve got a deeper lineup now.”
Seager then drove a two-run single up the middle, and the Mariners led 7-5. Cano followed with his second homer of the game, and his fourth in the three-game series.
“We’re going to have to find a way to pitch to him,” Texas catcher Bryan Holaday said. “I don’t know if anything is different. I’ll have to sit down and take a look and see what I can come up with.”
Cano’s second blast closed the score.
The victory enabled the Mariners to win a three-game series that started Monday with a numbing 3-2 loss despite limiting the Rangers to just one hit.
Wednesday started with Cano making it three homers in three days when he unloaded on a 1-1 changeup from Texas starter Colby Lewis in the first inning. It staked lefty starter Wade Miley to a 2-0 lead.
“I’ve been taking advantage of those pitches right in the middle of the plate,” Cano said. “The pitch in that last at-bat was a changeup. The one earlier was a changeup, too.”
Martin’s two-out homer in the second, a low laser to right, made it 3-0, but the Rangers struck back for two runs later in the inning. Ex-Mariner Justin Ruggiano contributed an RBI double.
Miley then retired 11 in a row before trouble erupted in the sixth. Shin-Soo Choo and Ian Desmond opened the inning with singles before Prince Fielder crushed a 1-1 slider for a 437-foot homer to right.
Texas led 5-3.
The Mariners got one run back in the seventh but saved their knockout punch for the ninth.
“We do have a long lineup,” manager Scott Servais said. “It’s just a matter of getting the right guys on and getting pitches to hit. It’s not going to be the same one or two guys.
“Our second baseman is really hot right now, but it’s the entire club that is producing. You have to (have that happening), to get 10 and nine runs back to back (games).”
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