SEATTLE — Danny Jansen hit a three-run homer with two outs in the fifth inning Tuesday night and finished with 4 RBI. The Texas Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners 10-5 at T-Mobile Park.
Cal Quantrill worked 6 innings and allowed 5 hits, 3 earned runs, 1 walk, and 4 strikeouts. He threw 93 pitches, 56 of them for strikes.
Corey Seager homered to right on the first pitch he saw from Bryce Miller to open the game. An inning later, Nicky Lopez singled to left with two outs to score Wyatt Langford, who had walked and stolen his 12th base.
Texas loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth. Justin Foscue hit for Joc Pederson against reliever Jose Ferrer and singled to center, scoring Jake Burger and Evan Carter for a 4-0 lead.
Seattle answered in the bottom half. Cal Raleigh doubled to deep left, and Lazaro Montes followed with a 474-foot three-run homer to center, the longest home run hit at T-Mobile Park in the Statcast era.
The Rangers scored 5 in the fifth. Ezequiel Durán walked, Eduard Bazardo relieved Ferrer, and Langford hit a two-run homer to left center, his 16th. Burger walked, Lopez was hit by a pitch, and Jansen drove the next pitch he liked to left center for a 9-3 lead.
Jansen wants the momentum carried through the rest of the road trip, and the belief in the Texas clubhouse runs up and down the lineup.
“Let’s talk about Wyatt first with the answer, right?” Jansen said. “They had a three-run homer, and then Wyatt had a two-run homer. Give us some breathing room, and then it definitely felt good to add some more for Cal.”
Jansen added an RBI single in the seventh that scored Carter. He went 2 for 4. Seager, Langford, and Jansen each homered, and Texas finished with 11 hits and no errors.
Cal Quantrill Records His Fifth Straight Quality Start
Quantrill is a competitor who leaves it all on the field for Jansen.
“It’s incredible. He’s a professional,” Jansen explained. “Everything he does is professional. He’s a command guy. It’s been a lot of fun to work with him, and he’s a competitor, and he’s going to leave it all on the field, and yeah, he’s doing a really good job for us, and he’s awesome.”
Quantrill improved to 8-5 and lowered his ERA to 2.89. He has now made 13 starts among 30 appearances this season and has a 1.062 WHIP over 102 2/3 innings. Robert Garcia relieved him in the seventh.
Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said Quantrill’s August and the start of his September were exactly what Texas needed to open a big series.
“Just the strike-throwing ability, the trust you have with the veteran pitcher, the trust he has with his defense behind him,” Schumaker said. “He doesn’t get hurt by walking anybody. It’s you’re going to beat me by getting hits.”
“And he’s really good at game planning,” Schumaker continued. “It feels like he goes six innings every time for us. And tonight we had to use a couple guys out of the pen, but our offense provided a lot of cushion, which we really needed, so we can have another day kind of reset from our leverage guys, which is hopefully a big, big deal going into tomorrow.”
Nicky Lopez and Justin Foscue Key the Fourth Inning Rally
Lopez went 3 for 3 and was hit by a pitch. He had not played in a while before drawing the spot start at second base, and Schumaker said he made a big defensive play in it.
“Nicky Lopez was as good as you could imagine, three hits, big two-out RBI to get the second run across the board,” Schumaker explained. “He provides a spark, just a fantastic night for him. And then Danny Jansen, a huge home run and another base hit, another RBI single. So if we can get production at the bottom, especially when now we’re getting the solid production at the top with Seager and Wyatt getting a big home run today was fantastic.”
Foscue finished 2 for 3 with 2 RBI. Pederson had gone 0 for 2 before being lifted for him in the fourth.
A lot of big moments went into Tuesday for Schumaker.
“Kind of the momentum changer was in the fourth inning when the Foscue pinch hit,” Schumaker said. “I think the coolest thing was Jock was sitting right next to me and he was his biggest cheerleader. And I think when sometimes you get pinch hit for it’s not, you want to be up there bases loaded two outs, and for Justin to come through and Jock being his biggest fan was a pretty cool moment as well.”
Texas is 72-73 and has won two in a row. The Rangers sit two games behind the Houston Astros in the American League West and 1 1/2 games behind the Cleveland Guardians for the third AL wild card. Seattle fell to 67-78 and has lost four of the first five games of a seven-game homestand.
The teams play the middle game of the series Wednesday at 3:10 p.m. CT. Cody Bradford (0-4, 4.45 ERA) is scheduled to start for Texas against Mariners left-hander Kade Anderson (0-1, 5.40).
