ARLINGTON, Texas — Colby Lewis allowed four hits over seven innings, Vladimir Guerrero homered, and the Texas Rangers beat Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners 7-1 on Tuesday night.
Lewis (5-4) had lost four of his previous five decisions before getting back on track against the Mariners, striking out five and walking three. He retired 10 of the last 12 batters he faced.
Elvis Andrus went 3-for-5 with two RBI for the Rangers, who ended a two-game skid.
Guerrero’s 422-foot two-run blast in the seventh was his team-high 13th, stretching Texas’ lead to 7-1 and chasing Hernandez (3-5).
Hernandez, who went 19-5 and was the AL Cy Young runner-up in 2009, had won four of his previous five decisions against Texas. But he’s struggled in his last two outings against the Rangers, allowing 12 runs in 10 1/3 innings.
Hernandez gave up seven runs and eight hits in six innings with five strikeouts and three walks.
The Mariners have lost four of five.
Josh Hamilton got the Rangers’ offense rolling with a first-inning, two-run double off the tip of the glove of left fielder Michael Saunders.
Seattle had six baserunners in the third and fourth innings, but the Mariners were only able to come up with one run against Lewis — Rob Johnson’s RBI single in the fourth.
Lewis settled down with a perfect fifth that included strikeouts of Ichiro Suzuki and Milton Bradley.
Seattle had Franklin Gutierrez on third with two outs in the sixth, but shortstop Andrus made a nice play in the hole on Josh Wilson’s grounder to preserve Texas’ 2-1 lead.
Andrus extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a first-inning single but he had an error in his third straight game, throwing wildly to first on a routine grounder in the third.
The Rangers gave Lewis some breathing room with a three-run sixth on rookie Justin Smoak’s run-scoring single and Andrus’ two-run double to make it 5-1.
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