George Kirby tossed seven shutout innings and Ty France delivered a two-run single to help the Seattle Mariners record a 5-0 victory over the visiting Texas Rangers on Tuesday night.
Tom Murphy added a two-run homer as Seattle won for the seventh time in its past nine games. France and Murphy each had two hits for the Mariners.
Kirby (4-2) matched his career high of nine strikeouts while winning for the fourth time in his past five starts. He gave up six hits and didn’t walk anyone.
Justin Topa issued one walk during a scoreless eighth and Juan Then allowed an infield hit in the ninth to complete the seven-hit shutout.
Jonah Heim and Josh Smith each had two hits for Texas, which lost for just the third time in its last 10 contests.
The Rangers have tallied just two runs in the first two matchups in the three-game series after scoring 58 runs over their previous six games. Texas prevailed 2-1 in Monday’s series opener.
The Rangers’ Andrew Heaney (2-3) gave up four runs (three earned) and four hits in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked two.
Murphy led off the Seattle third inning with a double. One out later, Sam Haggerty singled and advanced to second on the throw to the plate by Texas right fielder Adolis Garcia. Murphy stopped at third.
After Julio Rodriguez flew out, France slapped a ground single to left field and his bat rolled about five feet away from the plate and stopped in the baseline. Murphy scored easily but it appeared there was going to be a close play at the plate before the throw from left fielder Smith hit the bat handle, allowing Haggerty to score without a play.
The score remained 2-0 until the seventh. AJ Pollock reached on a throwing error by Rangers third baseman Josh Jung and Murphy followed with his first homer of the season, depositing a 3-1 changeup from Heaney over the fence in left-center.
Pollock added a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the eighth to make it a five-run margin.
–Field Level Media
