Offensive Slumber Continues - Seattle Wins 3-2

Mariners' outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and third baseman Matt Tuiasosopo (both pictured above)celebrate after winning their first game in over a week. Ichiro went 2 for 4 for the game, scoring a run. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

Even with Josh Hamilton back in the lineup after a two game absence, the Rangers' offense continues to have trouble scoring runs.

The Texas Rangers (61-45), suddenly in a slump having lost three of it's last four games, have scored a total of five runs over the past four games. This time it was Jason Vargas and the Seattle Mariners (40-67) holding the Rangers' in check, as the Mariners' starter pitched six innings of two-run baseball.

Although the Rangers managed only four total hits for the game, they did have their chances. In both the third and the fifth innings Texas had two runners on and no outs, only to come away with one run each time on sac fly's. Texas continued it's recent trend of stranding runners on base, finishing the game 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position.

Vargas, normally heavily reliant on fly-ball outs, used a good changup down in the zone to coax ground-outs all-game-long. Hamilton grounded into a double play to end the threat in the third, while Mitch Moreland grounded out back to the pitcher to end the fifth. Vargas finished the game having allowed two runs on three hits and three walks, and the young starter's ability to pitch out of the jam won him this game.

"Once he got into trouble he made pitches when he needed to," Seattle manager Don Wakamatsu said. "He's been doing that all year. He doesn't give in."

Seattle was able to nickle-and-dime Rangers' starter Colby Lewis in the game as Lewis tied a season-high with nine hits allowed. Seven of those hits were singles, with the one big hit (a solo-home run by Franklin Gutierrez in fifth) being his undoing. Gutierrez also laid down a suicide-squeeze bunt in the third that scored Ichiro, who had gotten on by infield single.

"They singled us to death," manager Ron Washington said. "They have some speed and the one hit by Gutierrez put us away."

The one bright spot for Lewis' start was the fact that he did fan nine Mariners' batters in only six innings, while walking only one. And, lets face it, the pitching hasn't been the problem as of late. It's been the Rangers' inability to put runs on the board.

Game two of the three-game set takes place Wednesday night with a 9:10 p.m. start time. C.J. Wilson (10-5, 3.11 ERA) gets the start for the Rangers and Doug Fister (3-7, 3.57) will take the mound for the Mariners. Fister has lost two of his last three starts despite giving up no more than three runs in any of them.

News and Notes:

• Vladimir Guerrero received a scheduled night off with Micheal Young filling in at DH and Jorge Cantu moving to third. Guerrero pinch hit in the ninth and was the final out of the game.
• With nine strikeouts for the game, Colby Lewis moved into a tie for sixth in the American League with 134 K's this season.
• Before today's game, the Rangers had won 8 of 10 meetings with the Mariners this season by a combined 39 runs.
• Also before today's game, the Mariners hadn't scored a run since the sixth inning of Friday night's game against the Minnesota Twins.

(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)