George Kirby allowed just one hit over seven scoreless innings as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Texas Rangers 7-0 on Sunday afternoon.
Mitch Garver and Randy Arozarena homered for the Mariners (77-73), who won their third consecutive game — all while wearing their City Connect uniforms. The M’s are 15-1 when donning their rush blue jerseys and black pants this season.
Seattle remained 4 1/2 games behind Houston in the American League West and are 2 1/2 games back of Minnesota for the third and final wild-card berth.
The Rangers (71-79) lost for the fifth time in their past six games.
The only hit off Kirby (12-11) came with one out in the second inning, when Ezequiel Duran grounded a hard single into right field. The right-hander then got Carson Kelly to ground into an inning-ending double play. Kirby didn’t allow a walk and struck out three, facing the minimum 21 batters over seven innings.
Rangers lefty Andrew Heaney (5-14) took the loss. Heaney gave up three runs on seven hits in five innings, with one walk and three strikeouts.
The Mariners scored all the runs they would need in the first inning. With two outs, Justin Turner lined a single to left and Arozarena walked. Garver, who was a member of the World Series champion Rangers last season, hit the first pitch he saw from Heaney over the fence in center field to make it 3-0.
The Mariners tacked on runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to pull away.
In the sixth, Luis Urias was hit by a pitch from reliever Matt Festa and J.P. Crawford singled to left with two outs. Victor Robles grounded a single up the middle to increase Seattle’s lead to 4-0.
Arozarena went deep off Gerson Garabito with one out in the seventh.
In the eighth, Mitch Haniger, Crawford and Luke Raley singled to load the bases for Julio Rodriguez, who hit a sacrifice fly to center. Turner followed with a sacrifice fly to left to complete the scoring.
–Field Level Media