– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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ARLINGTON, Texas — Now that the Texas Rangers have reclaimed the top spot in the American League West, they will hope that the second chance to make a good first (place) impression will last long enough to finally lift them back into the postseason.
Corey Seager got things going for the Rangers with a solo home run in the first before Evan Carter cracked a three-run shot in the second inning, spearheading Texas to an 8-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners inside Globe Life Field on Friday night. Dane Dunning did just enough in his 5 1/3 innings of work to get the win, a victory that moves the Rangers back to first place in the AL West, a half game ahead of the Houston Astros, who lost at home to Kansas City, and a game over the Mariners.
Texas spent a lion’s share of the season atop the division, with Seager looking like an batting champion and MVP candidate over the first couple of months of the season before a thumb injury in July slowed his progress. His infield mate on the left side, third baseman Josh Jung, was on his way to winning Rookie of the Year until he broke his thumb in early August. As if the injury bug couldn’t bite any harder, another of the Rangers’ big bats, Adolis Garcia, strained his patellar tendon in his right knee earlier this month against Houston.
On the day after Seager’s injury, the Rangers stood three games ahead of the Astros in first place in the division while owning the best run differential in all of baseball at plus-147. On the say Garcia was placed on IL two weeks ago, Texas was three games behind Houston and in third place in the division, with the Mariners wedging their way in between the Texas teams after a scorching summer put Seattle in a position to make the postseason for a second year running.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Friday evening’s game, with all photos taken by Dallas-area photographer Ross James. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 30 pictures in total.
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