Mariners at Rangers
Say this for the Texas Rangers: They make sure the home crowd sticks around until the end. The Rangers host the Seattle Mariners on Thursday afternoon, hours after recording their fourth walk-off victory in nine home games by scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth to shock the Mariners 3-2 and improve to 4-1 in one-run games. The Mariners, who spoiled a fantastic performance by Felix Hernandez, committed one error in their past 11 games before Brad Miller’s bad throw to second base with two outs in the ninth kept the game going and gave Texas the opportunity to steal the victory.
The Mariners dropped seven of 11 since a 3-0 start, and are in the midst of a seven-game road trip to Texas and Miami that will cover some 5,550 miles. Lead-off hitter Abraham Almonte has reached base in 12 of Seattle’s 14 games, collecting two hits with a RBI on Wednesday. The dramatic victory pushed the Rangers above .500 at 8-7, but Texas finished with just six hits and has scored three runs or less six times in their past nine contests.
TV: 2:05 p.m. ET, ROOT (Seattle), FSN Southwest (Texas)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Mariners RH Erasmo Ramirez (1-2, 5.63 ERA) vs. Rangers RH Tanner Scheppers (0-1, 7.88)
Ramirez fired seven strong innings in his first start April 1, but has surrendered eight earned runs with six walks in nine innings across his past two outings. The right-hander has allowed a homer in each of his three starts while posting a 1.56 WHIP and a .290 opponents batting average. The 23-year-old, who went 3-0 with a 1.14 ERA this spring, has posted a 2.38 ERA in 11 1/3 innings in three lifetime appearances against Texas.
Scheppers has not fooled many hitters in his first three starts, giving up 21 hits and 14 runs in 16 innings. The 27-year-old, who made 115 relief appearances in his first two seasons before moving into the Rangers’ rotation to start this season, gave up five runs in seven innings in a no-decision Saturday against Houston. Scheppers’ first two starts were rough, the right-hander allowing nine runs on 17 hits in nine innings.
WALK-OFFS
1. The Mariners are 7-0 when hitting a home run, and 0-7 when they do not.
2. Seattle has been outscored 13-0 in the eighth inning this season.
3. Scheppers set a club record for relief appearances by a right-hander last season with 76.