Rangers roll to fifth straight win
ARLINGTON, Texas -- Rougned Odor hit two home runs and matched a career high with five RBIs, and Carlos Gomez hit his third career grand slam to power the Texas Rangers to a 14-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday, completing a three-game sweep.
Odor had a two-run home run in the seventh and followed with a three-run shot -- his 27th of the season -- in the eighth of a game already out of reach.
Gomez's home run, his second since being acquired by Texas last week, was part of the Rangers' five-run fourth and the first of five Texas homers.
Adrian Beltre's 26th home run of the season was the 438th of his career, tying him with Andre Dawson for 43rd all-time. The Texas third baseman passed Willie McCovey for 37th all-time with 1,556 RBIs.
Ryan Rua hit the team's fourth home run, also in the eighth, for Texas, which won its fifth straight game and maintained an 8 1/2-game lead over the Astros in the AL West.
Left-hander Martin Perez (9-10) earned the victory by pitching six shutout innings, giving up seven hits and walking three while striking out four.
Felix Hernandez (9-5) suffered his first loss in last nine starts for Seattle, losers of five straight and eight of nine. The right-hander gave up six runs on four hits and three walks while striking out three. Hernandez entered 5-0 with a 3.46 ERA since coming off the disabled list July 20.
Kyle Seager, who has reached base in 48 of his last 54 games, hit a solo homer in the eighth off right-hander Tony Barnette to break up the shutout.
Perez allowed base runners in each of his six innings, and had two on with one out in the sixth. But the lefty struck out Leonys Martin and induced a groundout to get out of danger. Perez, 1-6 with a 6.30 ERA in his last 10 starts, moved to 8-2 this season at home.
The Rangers sent nine men to the plate in the fourth.
Carlos Beltran and Beltre each had singles to start the inning while Mitch Moreland walked with one out, ahead of Elvis Andrus run-scoring base hit.
Gomez, who walked and scored the Rangers' first run on Nomar Mazara's sacrifice fly in the third, slammed Hernandez's 3-1 pitch to deep left field.
In the fifth, the Rangers continued to pour it on. Beltran again singled to lead off to set up Beltre, who took Seattle lefty Vidal Nuno deep to increase Texas' lead to 8-0.
Barnette worked two innings in relief of Perez, giving up a run on Seager's home run. Lefty Dario Alvarez retired the Mariners in order in the ninth.
NOTES: Seattle OF/DH Nelson Cruz sat out a second straight day with a hand injury. "He feels better, but his grip strength is not where it needs to be yet," manager Scott Servais said. "When you can't grip the bat, it's tough to be a hitter." ... Texas manager Jeff Banister said he is unsure how he will structure his rotation for this weekend's series against Houston. RHP A.J. Griffin will pitch on Friday, but with an off-day Thursday, the manager is mulling moving up RHP Yu Darvish and LHP Cole Hamels an extra day instead of pitching Saturday and Sunday. If the Rangers stay on turn, LHP Derek Holland would go Saturday and Darvish Sunday. ... Texas entered Wednesday's game with a majors-best 30-8 mark in one-run games.