It was Burger Night at Globe Life Field.
No, there weren't any specials at the concession stands. Just the Texas Rangers' Jake Burger taking a bite out of the defending American League West champion Seattle Mariners.
Burger belted a two-run homer in the fourth inning and added a tiebreaking single in the sixth as the Rangers recorded a 5-4 victory over the visiting Mariners on Friday in the opener of a four-game series in Arlington, Texas.
Wyatt Langford also went deep for Texas, which extended its division lead to 1 1/2 games over the Mariners.
Saturday is scheduled to feature a matchup of right-handers in the Mariners' Bryan Woo (7-6, 4.16 ERA) against the Rangers' Nathan Eovaldi (9-8, 4.21).
Burger, who struck out with two runners on base to end an inning in a 4-2 loss Wednesday to the Chicago White Sox, was looking to atone.
"I felt like I let the team down a little bit on Wednesday at kind of pivotal time," Burger said. "I'm going to go out there and give it my all every single day. But today was kind of like: 'Hey, this is setting the tone for the rest of the year. So, stop feeling sorry for yourself. It's time to go out there and compete."
Rangers manager Skip Schumaker certainly appreciated it.
"He's had a lot of clutch hits this year," Schumaker said of Burger, who leads the team with 18 homers and 64 RBIs. "The home run was huge, but then they bring in a reliever (Eduard Bazardo) who gets it on the ground a lot and (Burger) gets it through the middle. He used the whole field. What can I say? Jake Burger is a winning player. He really is."
The Mariners, who have scored the second fewest runs in the major leagues, finished with 10 hits a day after firing assistant hitting coach Bobby Magallanes. They were 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven on base.
"When you're just not getting the results you want as a team, it's very frustrating. I think everybody can sense that," said Mariners right fielder Dominic Canzone, who had a two-run double in the fifth inning that tied the score at 3-all. "All we can do is keep grinding. We're trying to figure out the answers, and they're not always right in front of you. So just try to come back tomorrow and bring the fight again."
Woo is 1-0 over his past three starts. He didn't get a decision last Saturday against the visiting San Francisco Giants despite a quality start of two earned runs in six innings as it took 10 frames for Seattle to prevail 4-3.
Woo has struggled mightily on the road this season, going 1-6 with a 6.28 ERA.
He is 3-3 with a 3.88 ERA in nine career starts against the Rangers, including 1-1 this season. He lost 3-0 on April 8 in Arlington, despite giving up one earned run (three overall) over five innings. He beat the Rangers 5-2 on April 19 in Seattle with seven strong innings.
Eovaldi is coming off an 8-5 loss Sunday at Atlanta in which he allowed four runs in as many innings.
He's 3-5 with a 5.16 ERA in 15 career starts against Seattle, including 1-1 this season. Eovaldi beat the Mariners 3-2 at home on April 7 with six quality innings and lost 7-3 in Seattle on April 18, when he gave up four runs (two earned) over five innings.
--Field Level Media
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