Bryan Woo pitched seven strong innings for his first victory of the season and was backed by three home runs as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Texas Rangers 5-2 on Sunday afternoon.
Rob Refsnyder, J.P. Crawford and Randy Arozarena went deep to account for all the runs for the Mariners, who took two of three games from their American League West rivals.
Woo (1-2) allowed two runs on four hits. The right-hander walked one and struck out six. Andres Munoz struck out three in the ninth — the first reached base on a wild pitch — and got Evan Carter to ground out to first to earn his third save.
The Rangers’ Brandon Nimmo lined Woo’s first pitch of the game into right for a single, but he was erased when Wyatt Langford grounded into an inning-ending double play.
The Rangers didn’t have another baserunner until Josh Smith lined a one-out single to right in the sixth.
Texas finally got to Woo in the seventh as Corey Seager led off with a walk, Langford singled on a soft liner to left and, with one out, Joc Pederson was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Josh Jung’s sacrifice fly to right spoiled the shutout bid and Carter’s double into the right field corner made it 5-2. Woo got Smith to ground to second to end the inning.
Rangers left-hander MacKenzie Gore (2-2) gave up five runs on seven hits over five innings with one walk and five strikeouts. Gore, who didn’t allow a hit on a curveball during his first four starts of the season, allowed four off that pitch Sunday — including the homers by Crawford and Arozarena.
Refsnyder, who came into the game 0-for-18 for the season, lined Gore’s first-pitch fastball over the left field wall leading off the bottom of the first.
The Mariners added to their lead in the second as Mitch Garver drew a leadoff walk and, one out later, Crawford went deep to right to make it 3-0.
With two outs in the fifth, Julio Rodriguez lined a single to left and Arozarena homered off the left field pole to extend the lead to 5-0.
