SEATTLE — Labor Day afternoon brought with it the promise of a pitchers’ duel.
Cole Hamels of the Texas Rangers entered the series opener Monday against the Mariners at Safeco Field with an earned-run average of 2.91, third-best in the American League. Seattle was coming off a disheartening series defeat against the Angels, its bats having gone quiet for most of the weekend.
Hamels was set to go against Felix Hernandez, not having a vintage year by his standards but still one of the most respected hurlers in the league.
Instead, a good old-fashioned wild AL West shootout broke out.
The Mariners chased Hamels in the top of the second inning en route to a 14-6 victory in front of 23,618 Monday afternoon.
Seattle (70-67) knocked out 14 hits, scored five runs in the bottom of the first and batted all the way around in the sixth. Seven different Mariners had a hit. Franklin Gutierrez and Jesus Sucre each had three of them, with Gutierrez adding four RBI and Dae-Ho Lee delivering three.
Guillermo Heredia earned a leadoff walk in the bottom of the first, fouling off pitch after pitch, forcing Hamels to throw nine pitches before letting Heredia make the slow trot down the line. Two batters later, Robinson Cano went deep with a two-run homer to open the scoring.
“When you can the tone in a game like that, it sets a tone for the rest of our lineup,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said of Heredia. “We have to grind it. We have to keep going and make this guy work.”
Later in the first, Lee singled, Leonys Martin doubled and Sucre scored a pair of runs with a two-out line drive into center field.
Gutierrez homered in the second to make it 6-0, and Lee drove home another with a two-out single that knocked Hamels out of the game for good.
All the action made for a busy box score, all diagonal lines and darkened-in diamonds.
“A great job by our offense,” Servais said. “We just kept attacking, attacking, attacking. … You’ve got to keep the pressure on them. To beat good clubs, you’ve got to stay with it. If you just stay back on your heels hoping for someone to throw a shutout or somebody to hit a couple of home runs, that’s not how you beat a good team.”
Hernandez certainly didn’t throw a shutout — his outing was impressive only by comparison.
Seattle’s ace lasted 52/3 innings, surrendering five runs — all of which came in the top of the third and momentarily looked like they would send him, as Hamels, toward an early exit.
Texas (82-56) batted around in the third. Even with the early cushion, every lead is somewhat tenuous against an offense as explosive as the Rangers’.
Six different Rangers entered the day with 20-plus home runs, none of whom were named Nomar Mazara, and he’s the one who sparked the big frame with a three-run shot over the right-field wall.
Hernandez (10-5, 3.75 ERA), who reached the 10-win plateau for the seventh consecutive season, steadied himself. Servais admitted afterward that he’d considered going to the bullpen during that 49-pitch frame, but he stuck with his ace.
Hernandez retired the side in order in both the fourth and fifth innings, allowing the game to settle. Despite not even making it out of the top of the sixth, he still walked off to a loud ovation and a lead his teammates would hold.
“It’s confidence,” Hernandez said. “(Servais) knows I’m the ace of the staff. Sometimes I have a rough inning, and that’s that.”
Seattle blew the game open for a second time in the bottom of the sixth, settling any lingering nerves for good.
Nelson Cruz slid around an attempted tag by Rangers catcher Jonathan Lucroy to make it 9-6, and Kyle Seager scored on a wild pitch. Gutierrez knocked in his third and fourth runs of the day with a ground-rule double, and Cruz set the final score with a sacrifice fly to right.
Labor Day afternoon might have started with the promise of a pitchers’ duel, but more than 3 1/2 hours and 20 combined runs later, that notion had long since been dispelled.
