Adrian Beltre homered and drove in five runs as the Texas Rangers defeated the visiting Seattle Mariners 8-3 Friday night in the rain-shortened debut for interim manager Don Wakamatsu.
The Rangers (65-88) fired Jeff Banister, the 2015 American League Manager of the Year, earlier in the day. Banister was replaced for the rest of the season by Wakamatsu, who managed the Mariners in 2009-10.
Beltre, a former Mariner, hit a three-run homer in the first inning and a two-run single in the third, both off right-hander Erasmo Ramirez, to give the Rangers a 5-0 lead.
The home run was the 14th of the season for Beltre and the 476th of his career, moving him past Stan Musial and Willie Stargell for 30th place in major league history.
Ramirez (2-4) lasted just 2 2/3 innings, allowing six runs on four hits. He walked two and struck out two.
Rangers right-hander Ariel Jurado (4-5) pitched five innings of relief to earn the victory. Jurado came on in the second after Connor Sadzeck pitched a scoreless first. Jurado allowed two runs on six hits with one walk and two strikeouts.
The Rangers loaded the bases after Beltre's two-run single in the third and scored their final run of the inning on a walk to Joey Gallo.
Texas made it 7-0 in the fourth as Jurickson Profar hit a bloop double to right field and scored on outfielder Ben Gamel's two-base throwing error on the same play.
Gallo hit his 38th homer of the season off left-hander James Pazos in the sixth inning, making it 8-2.
The Mariners (84-69) scored their first run when Dee Gordon led off the fifth with a triple to right field and scored on a groundout by Mitch Haniger.
Seattle scored again in the sixth as Gamel grounded a two-out single to center field and scored on Mike Zunino's double to left. An inning later, Haniger doubled to left and Jean Segura singled to center to knock him in.
The rain then began to fall and the game was stopped at 9:26 p.m. CT with two outs in the top of the seventh inning. After a delay of a little more than an hour, the game was called.
--Field Level Media
Seattle | Texas | |
Erasmo Ramirez | Player | Connor Sadzeck |
Loss | W/L | No Decision |
2.2 | IP | 1.0 |
2 | Strikeouts | 0 |
4 | Hits | 0 |
20.25 | ERA | 0.00 |
Seattle | Texas | |
Robinson Cano | Player | Adrian Beltre |
2 | Hits | 2 |
0 | RBI | 5 |
0 | HR | 1 |
2 | TB | 5 |
.667 | Avg | .667 |