Arlington, TX – Nelson Cruz hit a grand slam and Mitch Moreland and Adrian Beltre each had two-run homers on Sunday as the Texas Rangers crushed the Seattle Mariners, 11-3, to earn a three-game sweep.
Leonys Martin had a solo home run, a triple and scored twice for the Rangers, who picked up their first three-game sweep of Seattle since September 23-25, 2011.
Starter Justin Grimm (1-0) tossed six innings and yielded two runs -- one earned -- on six hits and struck out nine for his first win of the season.
"It looked like the first couple of innings we were having problems just trying to figure Harang out," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "After that, pitch count started rising a little bit and he made some mistakes and we capitalized."
Endy Chavez had a run-scoring double and Kyle Seager went 3-for-4 with a solo homer and pair of RBI for the Mariners, who have lost five of six.
Starter Aaron Harang (0-2) struggled through 4 2/3 innings, allowing eight runs on eight hits, including three home runs, while walking two in defeat.
Leading 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth, the Rangers broke open the game over the next two innings with mammoth shots from Cruz and Beltre.
Martin lead off the fifth with a triple and Ian Kinsler singled to right to easily score Martin and make it 4-2. Three batters later and with two outs, David Murphy walked to load the bases. Cruz then launched a monster grand slam into dead center field to make it 8-2.
Beltre joined the party in the sixth with a two-run blast to left which made it 10-2. Jeff Baker hit an RBI single in the eighth to make it 11-2 and Seager added a solo shot to right in the ninth to account for Seattle's final run.
Seattle actually led 1-0 early in the game. Seager doubled to left field in the first scoring Chavez to extend his hit streak to 10 games.
After failing to score through the first two innings, Martin hit a one-hot solo shot, the first of his career, to right-center in the third to tie the game.
In the fourth, Texas rallied with two down. Cruz poked a single to right and Moreland followed with a deep knock to center to make it 3-1. Chavez, though, helped Seattle get within 3-2 in the fifth with a double over the center fielders head to plate Brendan Ryan.
"We kind of crashed as a team offensively," Seattle manager Eric Wedge said.
Game Notes
The Rangers struck out 32 batters over the three-game series ... It was Cruz's fifth career grand slam ... The Rangers' 11 runs were a season-high ... It was Grimm's fourth career MLB start ... Harang has an earned run average over 13 in four career starts at Rangers Ballpark ... Michael Kirkman tossed three innings of relief for Texas to earn his first career save.
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