ARLINGTON, Texas – Maybe the moral of the story is to not pitch to Seattle’s Eugenio Suárez.
For the second time in three games, the Rangers, normally quite good this season in closing out games, couldn’t get it done, losing 6-5 in 10 innings to the Seattle Mariners on Sunday.
Suárez was the reason why both times. On Sunday – two days after he hit a go-ahead, game-winning home run in the ninth – he hit a two-RBI double off of Rangers reliever Matt Bush to cap a three-run inning for the Mariners and tie the game at five.
The next inning, Mariners second baseman Abraham Toro scored on a wild pitch from reliever Brock Burke in what ended up being the game winner.
The Rangers have allowed the ghost runner – the runner starting off extra innings at second base – to score in all six extra innings this season, leading to a 2-3 record for the team in extras.
That wouldn’t have happened without Seattle’s three-run ninth inning, however. Ty France started the inning with a solo home run that just snuck over the 326-foot sign in the right field corner. Back-to-back singles then gave Seattle runners at first and third with one out and Suárez at the plate.
Rangers manager Chris Woodward said, with no disrespect, that he didn’t consider intentionally walking Suárez, who is hitting .379 over an eight-game hitting streak, including a game-winning home run in the first game of the series and a solo home run in Sunday’s game – the first home run Martín Pérez had given up all season.
“I don’t think you push the tying run to second base in any scenario, especially when the guy on the mound throws 100 miles per hour,” Woodward said.
“You just have to execute the pitch. [Bush] just left a pitch middle away that should’ve either been off the plate or to the edge.”
Instead, Suarez sent a liner 98.9 miles per hour down the line, shutting the door on the Rangers’ chances of winning in the top of the 9th for the second time in three days.
