Six-pack for M's: Seattle wins 6th in row, 8-5 at Texas
ARLINGTON, Texas — Kyle Seager had a solo homer, a tiebreaking two-run triple and drove in four runs as the Seattle Mariners stretched their winning streak to six games with an 8-5 victory over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night.
Domingo Santana hit his 21st homer for the Mariners (47-63), who matched their longest winning streak this year. They also won six in a row in April, during their 13-2 start to the season before an extended slump that dropped them to the bottom of the AL West.
Sam Tuivailala (1-0) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of starter Mike Leake, who allowed 10 hits and five runs in 5 2/3 innings. Roenis Elias worked the ninth for his 14th save in 16 chances.
Texas lost for the 18th time in 25 games and has an overall losing record for the first time since May 27. The Rangers (53-54) peaked at 10 games over .500 and were in position for one of the American League's two wild-card spots a month ago, before their current slide.
The Rangers traded their most reliable reliever, right-hander Chris Martin, to Atlanta during the game.
Seattle, which had lost its last nine road games, blew a 5-1 lead when the Rangers chased Leake with four runs in the sixth. Danny Santana led off the inning with his 16th home run, and Rougned Odor had a two-run double before a RBI single by Delino DeShields tied the game.
After reliever Brett Martin (1-2) walked Daniel Vogelbach to start the seventh and was taken out, an error put two runners on before Seager tripled into the right-center gap. Austin Nola followed with an RBI groundout.
Seager went deep in the second, a drive to the left-center gap that hit off the heel of leaping center fielder DeShields' glove and went over the eight-foot wall.