Seattle Mariners Find Opening Against Texas Rangers Bullpen in 4-3 Win

SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners kept their playoff hopes alive for another day after securing a 4-3, come-from-behind victory against the Texas Rangers on Thursday at T-Mobile Park.

The Mariners secured the series win with the victory and improved to 69-78 on the season. Following the win, Seattle is six games out of first place in the American League West and five games out of the final wild card spot in the American League.

Before Seattle mounted its comeback to secure the series win, it had to fight from multiple runs down after being on the wrong end of a classic pitching duel.

Mariners starting pitcher Logan Gilbert and Rangers starter Jacob deGrom both posted quality starts with double-digit strikeouts Thursday.

"Two tough pitchers going at it early on," M's manager Dan Wilson said in a postgame interview Thursday. "It was a lot of strikeouts, a lot of back-and-forth there, scoreless innings. I thought deGrom had really good stuff. Looked like his fastball was moving all over the zone. ... Kept us pretty quiet."

Gilbert was the first one of the two to blink.

Texas took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third after designated hitter Joc Pederson hit a two-out, two-run home run on the first pitch of his at-bat.

The Rangers extended their lead to 3-0 in the top of the fifth after neither Gilbert nor catcher Cal Raleigh were able to cleanly field a bunt laid down by Texas second baseman Nicky Lopez.

Lopez's bunt ended up an RBI single that brought home center fielder Evan Carter.

deGrom only allowed one base runner to reach Thursday, which came via a single hit by Cole Young in the bottom of the sixth.

But, crucially, Gilbert outlasted deGrom. The latter of the two pitchers finished with 12 strikeouts, one hit allowed and threw a wild pitch in six innings of work.

Gilbert went through the seventh inning, fanned 11, walked two, hit a batter and allowed three earned runs on as many hits (one homer).

Gilbert talked after his last start, which he allowed four home runs, about being less predictable in patterns, and credited Raleigh for doing just that, which might have been needed against a team that has dueled the M's 13 times this season.

"Yeah, a lot of matchups," Gilbert said after the game. "And as the game goes on, it's big to talk to the catcher and coaches about what we're seeing, what we're feeling. Certain pitchers are going to be working but you also want to throw some early wrinkles in. ... I think we did a good job of being just unpredictable enough and Cal did a good job with that. It's tough when you keep seeing each other."

That one inning proved to be a passive difference maker as that was when Seattle launched its comeback.

In the bottom of the seventh, with Jakob Junis on the hill, the Mariners scored all four of their runs.

Seattle had four-straight runners reach base safely against Junis, including three-consecutive base hits.

Designated hitter Dominic Canzone brought home left fielder Randy Arozarena with an RBI single to cut the Rangers' lead to 3-1.

Two batters later, center fielder Julio Rodriguez connected with a three-run home run to left field that resulted in the eventual final of 4-3.

"We know where we're at (in the standings)," Rodriguez said in a postgame interview. "And that's why we got to continue to show up and win any game that we can, especially now in these last few games that we have, and see what happens. That's the only thing we can control: how we show up, how we bring ourselves, how we compete and all that. And just see what happens at the end of the year.

"It's still a win though. I feel like that's what we're aiming towards. It's not ideal, but it's definitely what we got and we got to approach it in that way."

Mariners left-handed reliever Gabe Speier and right-handed closer Andres Munoz kept Texas off the board in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, to secure the series victory.

It was the first time Munoz has had saves on back-to-back days since June 7-8 this year.

Munoz's second save in as many days came courtesy of an unusual play that would have given Seattle two outs to end the game when it only needed one.

First baseman Jake Burger hit into a fielder's choice, which was scooped up by M's second baseman Cole Young.

Young stepped on second base, just beating Carter on a bang-bang play, and delivered a throw to Josh Naylor at first base that would have gotten out Burger.

After official review, Young was ruled to have gotten the out on Carter at second.

"It was a really weird play," Young said in a postgame interview. " ... I knew I had him at first, but I wasn't sure at second. I knew it was going to be bang-bang."

Seattle will begin a nine-game road trip, beginning with the first of a three-game series against the Athletics at 6:40 p.m. PT on Friday at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, Calif.

George Kirby will start for the Mariners and Jeffrey Springs will start for the A's.