– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
Follow @Koiki_Sport Follow @ALOST_Official
ARLINGTON, TEXAS — At some point this season, one team in the middling, meandering American League West is going to separate themselves from the muck and mire and represent the division in the postseason. If it were to be the Seattle Mariners who emerges at the end, their moribund offense has finally got to stand up and deliver, something that it did in the nick of time to finally record a win on the road against one of their closest rivals.
Dominic Canzone crushed a two-out, three-run home run as part of a four-run seventh inning as the Mariners came from behind to defeat the Texas Rangers 6-4 inside Globe Life Field on Sunday afternoon. Randy Arozarena followed Canzone’s homer with a round-tripper of his own as the Mariners snapped a four-game losing streak and won their first game in Arlington after five consecutive defeats against the Rangers on the road this season.
Seattle, at 52-54, is now 1 1/2 games behind Texas for first place in the division.
Though the Mariners boast one of the best pitching staffs in baseball, their offense has gone through a power outage this season and especially in the last two months as the team entered Sunday scoring the third-fewest runs in baseball. And after 6 2/3 innings on Sunday, Seattle had scratched just one run across while staring a 3-1 deficit — and getting swept out the DFW —in the face.
That’s when Canzone stepped to the plate, took the first two pitches from Rangers reliever Cole Winn for balls and, finally, launched a three-run home run into the second deck of the right field bleachers to give the Mariners a 4-3 advantage — the first lead Seattle had at any point in the three-game series.
“A lot of relief,” said Mariners starter Logan Gilbert, who surrendered three runs over 5 2/3 innings. “I mean, that’s what we needed right there. And especially in that situation in the game that late, that was a pretty dramatic way to do it.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by ALOST photo editor Ross James. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 29 pictures in total.
Follow @Koiki_Sport Follow @ALOST_Official
