SEATTLE (AP) — Rookie Evan White doubled and homered in his first two at-bats and finished with a career-high six RBIs, Kyle Lewis added three more hits to his AL-leading total and the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 10-1 on Saturday night.
White had a two-run double to cap Seattle’s three-run first inning, and added the final big blow of the night to Texas starter Jordan Lyles with a three-run shot in the third for his fifth homer of the season.
“It’s really nice to start seeing him getting some results,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “All the work, and a little bit of a struggle that he went through early on, he’s getting on the other side of it now and you start to see all the talent come out at the plate.”
Meanwhile, Lewis continues to pile up hits in his rookie season. Lewis singled on an 0-2 pitch in his first at-bat, added another single in the third and doubled in the fourth to give him 38 hits. He was on base five times walking in his final two plate appearances and raised his batting average to .373.
Seattle starter Justus Sheffield allowed just one run in six strong innings and won his second straight decision. Sheffield (2-2) has thrown six innings in each of his past three starts and allowed two earned runs with 16 strikeouts.
“It’s a matter of just trusting your stuff, seeing the target and drive into that target and aggressively pitching,” Sheffield said. “I feel like that’s my style.”
The Rangers held a team meeting following their seventh straight loss and manager Chris Woodward said he could sense the mounting frustration.
“I know they’re trying, I know they’re trying to compete, but we’ve got to start coming up with some solutions to this because we’re not going to win too many games; it’s not a good recipe for success,” Woodward said.
Lyles (1-3) was roughed up for the second straight start. He allowed seven earned runs in his last outing against San Diego and was knocked around for eight earned runs and 11 hits by the Mariners.
Woodward questioned if Lyles may be tipping his pitches.
“When teams have something on a guy, a lot of times you don’t know it until it’s seven or eight runs, kind of like it was. It’s kind of been similar to that the last couple of outings for him,” Woodward said.
After missing the previous two games with a sore knee — the result of a foul ball off his kneecap — White got started immediately. White stayed back on a 3-2 curveball from Lyles and lined it fair down the left-field line for a two-out, two-run double in the first inning.
In his next at-bat, Lyles was ahead of White in the count and his two-strike fastball tailed inside. But White was able to pull his hands in, get the barrel on the fastball and drive it out to left field for his third homer in his past four games.
“Some of those hits were with two strikes so I’m feeling confident and comfortable and trying to keep that same mentality each and every at-bat,” White said.
Austin Nola also had two hits and an RBI for Seattle and Shed Long Jr. snapped a 0-for-21 skid with an RBI double in the seventh inning.
WRONG JERSEY
Rangers reliver Jesse Chavez pitched seventh inning and allowed one run while striking out two. But his outing was more notable because he was ,. Chavez was wearing the Rangers spring training jersey and not their game jersey.
ROSTER MOVE
Seattle placed IF/OF Dylan Moore on the 10-day injured list with a sprained right wrist and recalled OF Jake Fraley from its alternate training site. The move with Moore is retroactive to Friday. Moore was hitting .282 with five home runs and 10 RBIs in 21 games, playing a mix of infield and outfield positions. Fraley appeared in 12 games last season with Seattle.
UP NEXT
Rangers: LHP Mike Minor (0-4, 6.94) looks for his first win of the season. Minor has yet to complete six innings and is the first member of the Rangers rotation to go winless through his first five starts since Ross Detwiler in 2015.
Mariners: RHP Justin Dunn (1-1, 7.80) gave up six runs and lasted just two innings in his last start against the Dodgers. Dunn beat the Rangers two weeks ago in Texas allowing two runs in six innings.
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