Rangers go long on M's

Rangers go long on M's

Texas hits five homers, continues mastery of Seattle

By Kirby Arnold

Everett Herald

SEATTLE - Memo to everyone sitting in the outfield seats tonight at Safeco Field:

Wear protection. The Texas Rangers are still in town.

The Rangers reached the seats with ease and regularity Monday night, pounding five home runs in an 8-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners.

Hank Blalock hit two homers and Alfonso Soriano, Kevin Mench and Mark Teixeira one apiece as the Rangers used their considerable clout to extend their first-place margin in the American League West Division. They lead Oakland by 2? games.

The last-place Mariners fell to 13? back, tying their largest deficit of the season.

"We know how tough they are to stay with when they're swinging the bats well," Mariners manager Bob Melvin said.

The Mariners played home-run derby early, and not only led after the first inning, they chased Rangers starter Nick Bierbrodt before he could get out of the second.

Four Rangers relievers, plus all that offense, ended up being too much for the Mariners. The M's managed nine hits, but the Rangers cracked 16.

"Their offense was more than we could handle," Melvin said.

It started early.

Blalock and Soriano homered back-to-back off Ryan Franklin for a 2- 0 lead in the top of the first.

Bierbrodt, who held the M's to five hits in a 6-3 victory at Texas last week, walked Jolbert Cabrera and Edgar Martinez with two outs in the bottom of the first, then left a pitch over the plate that Bret Boone could drive. He did, just far enough over the right-field fence for his 10th home run this season and a 3-2 Mariners lead.

It held for two more innings as Franklin appeared to settle, then fell apart in the fourth as the Rangers' hitters got more and more comfortable at the plate.

Mench hit a one-out homer in the fourth that tied the score 3-3, and Franklin gave up a walk and a double to Michael Young before getting out of the inning.

Brad Fullmer singled with one out in the fifth and Teixeira, the next hitter, hit Franklin's first pitch over the right-field fence for a 5-3 Rangers lead.

Franklin worked his way out of that inning, but was finished for the night after suffering yet another bashing by the Rangers. His ERA is 12.46 in three starts against the Rangers this season, all of them losses.

With J.J. Putz on the mound in the sixth, Rod Barajas singled and Blalock clubbed his 20th homer well over the 385-foot mark in right- center. His three RBI gave him 55 for the season, tying him for fifth place in the American League.

The Mariners finally reached Rangers right-hander Ricardo Rodriguez, who replaced Bierbrodt in the second, with a run in the fifth when Randy Winn led off with a triple and scored on Jolbert Cabrera's double, cutting Texas' lead to 5-4.

Left-hander Ron Mahay got the final two outs of the sixth after the Mariners had put runners on first and second, and right-hander Frank Francisco blew away the M's in the seventh, striking out Cabrera, Martinez and Boone.

Blalock's homer in the sixth pushed the lead back to three runs. IT became a four-run margin in the eighth when M's reliever Mike Myers gave up three hits, including Herbert Perry's RBI single that made it 8-4.

The M's touched Carlos Almanzar for a run in the eighth when Rich Aurilia led off with a ground-rule double, reached third base on Dan Wilson's ground out and scored on Spiezio's sacrifice fly.

It cut the margin to three runs and, before it was over, the Mariners were one swing from wiping that out.

Didn't happen.

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