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Rangers rally in ninth to sink Mariners

Jul 30, 2008 - 6:57 AM By John Tranchina PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- For Ramon Vazquez, a roller coaster outing finally ended up with sweet redemption.

Vazquez drilled a two-run double into right center field in the bottom of the ninth to give the Rangers an 11-10 victory over the Seattle Mariners.

After committing three errors, including one that allowed Seattle to take a 10-9 lead in the top of the ninth, Vazquez ended the night with four hits and four RBI.

The Rangers blew a 7-0 lead, but rallied to avoid the monumental collapse, snapping a two-game losing streak.

Marlon Byrd led off the ninth with his fourth hit of the game, a single to right, and Chris Davis also singled off Seattle closer J.J. Putz, who blew his fifth save of the season in 12 chances. After Putz fielded Gerald Laird's bunt and got Byrd on the force out at third, Vazquez followed with the game-winning hit.

"It's awesome, I'm glad to do something to end the game," said Vazquez, who started just his second game since the All-Star break. "It would have been a tough one leaving this game if we had lost. I was hoping I would get a chance to play sooner. It was not exactly what I was planning to do, I'd rather get an easy win and not all this crazy stuff."

"He's been doing it all year long," Byrd said of Vazquez. "Sometimes you don't do it in the field, but if you come away with a win, it makes it worth it."

The Mariners lost for the eighth time in their last 10 and remain in last place overall in the American League.

Seattle came back to take the lead in the top of the ninth, rallying from one run down to score two off Texas closer C.J. Wilson (1-2), who got the win despite blowing his fourth save of the season in 27 tries and second in the past week.

Jose Lopez led off with a single before Wilson hit pinch hitter Kenji Johjima on the knee with a pitch, forcing Johjima to leave the game. Pitcher Jarrod Washburn entered the contest as a pinch runner. Miguel Cairo's sacrifice bunt advanced the runners to second and third with one out before Jamie Burke's grounder to Vazquez at third base. Vazquez bobbled it, then threw it away, enabling both Lopez and Washburn to score.

"I was surprised," said Washburn, who wasn't even in uniform on the bench. "Needless to say, I didn't even have my jersey on, spikes or anything. I think I got up (to the clubhouse) and got dressed in record time, got down there and forgot my belt, (manager Jim Riggleman) had to give me his. It worked out, but we couldn't held on."

Besides Vazquez's heroics at the plate, Texas received three hits, including a home run and four RBI from Byrd, while Milton Bradley, Josh Hamilton and Gerald Laird also contributed three hits.

"We battled all the way to the end and we just fell short one run," said Cairo, who had two hits and scored twice. "That was a good battle. We never give up, we keep coming and you can tell what kind of players we have here. It was a good game."

But Texas, which lost its third in a row, didn't help its cause by committing five errors, three of which led directly to runs for Seattle.

"I don't know if I've ever made three errors in one game," Vazquez said. "It might have been once or maybe twice, but you don't make errors when you don't play."

The Mariners were led by Lopez and rookie Bryan LaHair, who each had three hits, including solo home runs, and two hits from Ichiro Suzuki. With his single on the opening pitch of the contest, Suzuki reached 3,000th career hits, combining his major league total (1,723) with those he collected in Japan (1,278).

"If you look at it, my pace of getting hits in the United States is actually quicker than in Japan," Ichiro said through an interpreter, responding to suggestions his accomplishment wasn't as significant because it included the hits in Japan. "People that want to say things like that, I say, 'Go ahead and say what you want,' but the only thing I want people to know is that in Japanese professional baseball, we don't use metal bats."

Texas jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second. Byrd drove in Milton Bradley with a double to left and then Gerald Laird, in just his third game back after missing 30 with a strained right hamstring, brought home Byrd with a single to center.

The Rangers then blew it open in a five-run third inning, chasing Seattle starter Carlos Silva after four. After Silva walked Michael Young to lead off the inning, he gave up singles to Josh Hamilton and Milton Bradley to load the bases with none out. Young scored on David Murphy's fielder's choice, then Byrd belted his sixth home run of the season just over the wall in right to make it 6-0.

Silva, who surrendered six runs on seven hits in just 2.1 innings, was spared the loss and remains 1-12 in his last 16 starts.

Texas added another off reliever Roy Corcoran when Ramon Vazquez singled up the middle to score Chris Davis from second. The Rangers tacked on a run in the bottom of the fourth when Bradley doubled home Hamilton and then another in the fifth on Vazquez's RBI single - and they would need them.

Seattle closed to within 9-6 with a three-run sixth that chased Mendoza. After LaHair and Miguel Cairo each singled, Mendoza plunked Burke to load the bases, and was subsequently pulled in favor of Jamey Wright with one out. An RBI single from Ichiro scored LaHair and Jeremy Reed's fielder's choice plated Cairo, while Burke came home on Ian Kinsler's throwing error.

Mendoza worked 5.1 innings, allowing six runs - five earned - on nine hits.

Seattle made it a one-run game in the seventh on back-to-back solo home runs from Lopez and LaHair off of Wright, but that's as close as they would come.

Bradley left the game in the eighth inning with a strained left quad. He is listed as day-to-day.