September 16 – George Kirby allowed only one hit in seven scoreless innings and the Seattle Mariners beat the visiting Texas Rangers, 7–0, on Sunday afternoon.
Mitch Garver and Randy Arozarena hit home runs for the Mariners (77-73), who won their third consecutive game and both wore City Connect team uniforms. The M’s, wearing blue jerseys and black pants, have a 15-1 record this season.
Seattle is 4 1/2 games behind the Houston Astros in the American League West and 2 1/2 games behind the Minnesota Twins for the third and final wild-card spot.
The Rangers (71-79) lost for the fifth time in their last six games.
Kirby (12-11)’s only hit came in the second inning when Ezequiel Duran hit a power single to right field. The right-hander then beat Carson Kelly with a top-of-the-inning double. Kirby faced the minimum 21 batters in seven innings, striking out four and walking three.
Rangers left-hander Andrew Heaney (5-14) allowed three runs on seven hits in five innings, walked four and struck out three.
The Mariners scored all the runs they needed in the first inning. With two outs, Justin Turner singled to left and Arozarena loaded the bases. Garver, a member of last season’s World Series-champion Rangers team, watched Heaney’s first pitch go over the wall in center field to make the score 3-0.
The Mariners took the lead in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings.
In the sixth inning, Luis Urias was hit by a pitch from reliever Matt Festa and J.P. Crawford singled to left with two outs. Victor Robles’s single up the middle increased Seattle’s lead to 4–0.
Arozarena homered off Gerson Garabito with one out in the seventh.
In the eighth inning, Mitch Hanig, Crawford and Luke Raley singled to load the bases on Julio Rodriguez, who hit a sacrifice fly to center. Turner followed with a sacrifice fly to left to complete the scoring.
–Visual-level media
