Rangers walk past Guardado, Mariners
SEATTLE – Seattle closer Eddie Guardado walked the bases loaded in the ninth inning and then walked Phil Nevin to force in pinch-runner Gerald Laird with the go-ahead run and give the Texas Rangers a 4-3 win over the Mariners on Thursday night.
Guardado (0-2), appearing for the first time since allowing a two-run, game-winning home run Sunday at Boston, imploded again. He angrily pounded his thigh with his glove after his third walk, to Michael Young. He then struck out Mark Teixeira for the second out.
But he then walked Nevin to send the Mariners to their fourth loss in five games.
Francisco Cordero, pitching for the fourth straight game and one night after allowing Carl Everett’s game-winning, three-run home run, finished the ninth for his third save.
With the victory, Texas had its first winning A.L. road trip of at least nine games (5-4) since 2001.
Seattle’s Raul Ibanez tied the game at 3-3 with two outs in the eighth inning on a double off Texas’ Brian Shouse. Rick Bauer (1-0) then came on to retire Richie Sexson and earn the victory.
Texas starter Vicente Padilla allowed one run and three hits in seven innings. He walked three and struck out seven five days after he had become the first major league pitcher in five years to give up home runs on three consecutive pitches, at Oakland.
Trailing 3-0, Ibanez hit a solo homer in the seventh. The Mariners then got two runs in the eighth on Jose Lopez’s fielder’s choice and Ibanez’s double.
But then Benoit gave up a Jeremy Reed leadoff single in the eighth. One out later, Benoit walked Ichiro Suzuki. Jose Lopez fielder’s choice force out made it 3-2. Then Raul Ibanez scored Lopez with the tying run on a two-out double off Shouse.
Texas took a 3-0 lead in the sixth on Gary Matthews Jr.’s homer and Kevin Mench’s two-run double.
Seattle starter Joel Pineiro had matched Padilla through five innings, also allowing only two hits. But with one out in the sixth, Matthews hit a line drive into the right-field bleachers to break the scoreless tie. It was his first home run in 30 games, since last Sept. 5 at Minnesota.
Read my hips
M’s manager Mike Hargrove said he hadn’t seen anything in Adrian Beltre’s body language to suggest his hitting slump was affecting him mentally.
“When he’s going good or bad, he’s the same guy,” Hargrove said. “That’s what you shoot for in this game.”
Beltre, who entered Thursday batting .161, drove in his first run of the season Wednesday night with an eighth-inning double. Hargrove said he didn’t notice any apparent sense of relief in Beltre after that hit.
“When you play every day, you can’t allow yourself to get too up or too down,” he said. “In the course of a ballgame you can read body language. But there are some players who have terrible body language and are real good players.
“It’s almost like reading tea leaves, and I’m not very good at that.”