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Gagne impressive in Rangers debut

Apr 14, 2007 - 7:55 AM SEATTLE (Ticker) -- Eric Gagne is back and looking as good as new.

Gagne finished off a strong outing by Kevin Millwood with a scoreless ninth inning as the Texas Rangers knocked off the Seattle Mariners, 5-2.

Ian Kinsler homered and drove in two runs for the Rangers, who improved to 5-5 this season.

From 2002-04 with the Dodgers, Gagne racked up 152 saves, including a record 84 straight en route to capturing the 2003 National League Cy Young Award. But elbow problems derailed Gagne, who has appeared in just 16 games over the last two seasons with the Dodgers. In the offseason, he signed a one-year, $6 million contract with the Rangers.

"I was just nervous. It was like my legs were just shaking, said Gagne after picking up his first save since June 6, 2006, while still with the Los Angeles Dodgers. "I was throwing the ball pretty good. I had good rotation on it. I was spotting the ball really good."

Texas manager Ron Washington said he would use Gagne in the ninth inning Friday, and he was true to his word.

"That's what we've been waiting for," Washington said. "He got the ball in the ninth and he did what we got him here to do, get three outs."

The 31-year-old Gagne had a fastball that reached 94 miles per hour when he struck out Ichiro Suzuki for the first out of the inning. He yielded a leadoff bloop single to right-center on a 2-2 changeup to Ben Broussard and ended the contest when he got Adrian Beltre to hit into a double play.

Millwood (2-1) yielded just a run and seven hits in six innings, walking two and striking out a pair.

"I was battling a cold and I was just trying to stay out there as long as I could," Millwood said. "That was about all I had."

Joaquin Benoit allowed a run in the seventh and Akinori Otsuka worked a scoreless eighth to set the stage for Gagne.

Kinsler plated the game's first run in the third inning with an infield single to third base. He drilled his fifth home run of the season off Jarrod Washburn in the fifth, a two-run blast for a 4-0 lead.

"I am just trying to put together good at-bats and swing and see what happens," said Kinsler, who is 8-for-14 with three home runs and seven RBI in the last three games. "I am a gap-to-gap guy and if the ball leaves the yard, it leaves the yard."

Washburn (0-1) was touched for four runs - three earned - and seven hits in six frames.

"I thought that we played a good game tonight," Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said. "We just hit a lot of balls right at people. We hit the ball hard and gave ourselves chances but we didn't get the really big hit when we needed it."

Because rain and snow forced five cancellations during the Mariners seven-game road trip which concluded Thursday, Washburn had not pitched since April 3.

"Jarrod pitched well enough to win, but he may have been a little tired after the long layoff," Hargrove said.

Ichiro Suzuki continued to struggle at the plate, striking out three times for only the sixth time in his major league career, but for the second time in his last three games. Suzuki is 0-for-12 and is hitting just .182 through the first six games.