Texas Rangers starter Cole Hamels reacts after releasing a pitch during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas, Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015. The Rangers won 10-1. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
ARLINGTON, Texas -- So it looks like Globe Life Park has a friend in Cole Hamels.
The Texas left-hander continued his recent dominance at the friendly confines Saturday night with seven innings of one-run ball as the Rangers rolled to a 10-1 victory over the Mariners.
The win kept the Texas lead over Houston at 2 ½ games with 14 games remaining.
Hamels (10-8), who didn't need the abundance of offensive support he got, struck out 12 and allowed seven hits. Over his last four starts at Globe Life Hamels is 2-0 with a 2.48 ERA and the Rangers are now 7-0 in the last seven Hamels starts.
Saturday was the fourth time he's faced Seattle since the trade and he was at his best.
"I think I was able to execute more pitches than not," said Hamels. "The past couple of games I've had against them I've had those few innings where I left pitches up and not gotten away with anything and really caused to create a big inning for them. I think in this game in general I was able to execute pitches and keep them off balance and throw all my pitches for strikes."
He set the tone for the kind of night he was going to have in the first inning. Seattle's Ketel Marte led off the game with a double to left. He didn't come around to score though as Hamels got a fly ball and then two strikeouts to end that threat.
He struck out at least one batter in each inning and the 12 strikeouts were his most since he had 13 in a no-hitter for Philadelphia in his last start before getting traded to Texas. The 12 strikeouts were the most by a Texas pitcher since Yu Darvish struck out 12 against Toronto on July 18, 2014.
"The secondary stuff was really sharp tonight," Texas manager Jeff Banister said. "It was probably as good as we've seen. It was the fourth time that club has seen Cole, and I thought the game plan was really good. I felt like they made some adjustments along the way when they needed to and his stuff was sharp."
While Hamels was baffling the Mariners, the Rangers were battering Seattle pitching.
A Texas team that had just one hit off Seattle starter Vidal Nuno the last time they faced him chased the lefty in the fourth inning Saturday after scoring five times off him in 3 1/3 innings.
Third baseman Adrian Beltre had an RBI double in the fourth and an RBI single in the fifth to give him 32 RBI in his last 29 games. He had plenty of company in the run-production category Saturday though as Texas pounded out 14 hits and scored runs in four of the first five innings.
Right fielder Shin-Soo Choo reached base five times, while Delino DeShields had two hits, scored twice and added two RBI. The top three spots in the Texas batting order combined to go 8 for 12 with five RBI and three runs scored.
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