Arlington, TX – Yu Darvish tossed seven scoreless innings and the Texas Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners, 7-0, in the opener of a three- game series.
Darvish (3-1) gave up three hits and struck out 10 for the Rangers, who got two RBI apiece from A.J. Pierzynski and Craig Gentry. Jeff Baker hit a solo homer.
"We haven't been really performing offensively like we feel we can and it's good to come home and start the series off swinging the bats a little bit," said Gentry.
Seattle starter Joe Saunders (1-2) allowed seven runs on nine hits over 4 2/3 innings.
The Mariners put men on first and second with two outs in the first inning. However, Justin Smoak struck out swinging.
"We obviously need to do a better job putting the ball in play. But you've got to give credit to Darvish tonight. He threw the ball well," said Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager.
Baker's homer to right-center field in the second gave Texas a 1-0 lead.
Texas broke the game open with six runs in the fifth. With one out, Lance Berkman singled, Adrian Beltre walked and Nelson Cruz singled to load the bases. Pierzynski followed with a two-run single to left-center field. Baker walked to fill the bags again. Following David Murphy's RBI groundout, Gentry hit a two-run triple to left. Hector Noesi replaced Saunders and gave up an RBI double to Ian Kinsler.
Seattle had a chance to get some runs back in the eighth after Robbie Ross loaded the bases with two outs. Smoak struck out swinging again to end the threat.
Michael Kirkman tossed a scoreless ninth to close out the Rangers' third shutout of the season.
Game Notes
Rangers Opening Day starter Matt Harrison will undergo surgery on Tuesday to fix a herniated disc and is expected to be out of commission until at least the end of the All-Star break ... The Mariners started a six-game road trip on Friday ... The Rangers had 10 hits, compared to five for Seattle ... Noesi gave up one hit over 3 1/3 scoreless innings.
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