Thursday, July 31, 2008
Seattle Mariners 8, Texas Rangers 5
ARLINGTON — The Texas Rangers were once again bested by a former pitching prospect of theirs Thursday night, as they lost 8-5 to R.A. Dickey and the Seattle Mariners at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The loss drops the Rangers to 56-53, still good for second place in the AL West.
Photo not provided by the Seattle Mariners, Starbucks
Seattle has been good for R.A. Dickey
The Rangers were done in by their off-again-on-again rookie starter Matt Harrison, who simply could not find the plate against the AL-worst Mariners unless he was giving up a hit. Harrison gave up six runs, four of them earned, before getting yanked in the fifth inning. Harrison, who got behind on the count with seemingly every batter, walked five and struck out two.
Harrison was replaced by Dustin Nippert, who pitched out the rest of the game and gave up two more runs. Nippert continues to lower his once-stratospheric ERA, and is now down to a Rangers-expectation-level 7.96 ERA.
The Rangers did not get much production at all from their top hitters, as Ian Kinsler, Michael Young and Josh Hamilton combined to go just 3-for-15 with a run scored. The Rangers were held in check for most of the game by former Texas pitching prospect R.A. Dickey, who limited Texas two just two runs and six hits over seven-plus innings of work. Dickey improved to 3-6 with a 4.41 ERA.
Almost all of the Rangers production came from the very bottom of the Texas lineup. Rookie phenom Chris Davis went 3-for-4 with two doubles and two runs scored, while Ramón Vázquez went 2-for-4 with a double, a home run, and three RBI.
Posted by Todd M.
