Julio Rodríguez homers twice for wild card-chasing Seattle and Kirby beats Rangers again in 8-2 win

AP Baseball Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Julio Rodríguez homered twice to drive in five runs, George Kirby went six innings for his 13th victory and the AL wild card-chasing Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 8-2 on Friday night.

Rodríguez put the Mariners (79-75) ahead to stay with his three-run homer in the fifth off Jack Leiter, who relieved Jacob deGrom after the two-time Cy Young Award winner made his first home start in nearly 17 months after elbow surgery.

Seattle remained two games behind Minnesota for the third and final wild card after the Twins beat Boston 4-2 in 12 innings. The Mariners stayed five back of Houston in the AL West with eight games remaining, three in Houston.

“We’re still in it. Everyone’s confident. Just got to to keep playing good baseball,” Kirby said.

“It feels great. Obviously we have a shot to get into the playoffs,” Rodríguez said. “But I feel like everybody knows that and understands that at the same time we’ve got to take it one day at a time. … We’ve got to focus on that right now.”

Rodríguez tied a career high for RBIs with his first multihomer game this season. His first homer put Seattle up 4-2, and he went deep off the rookie right-hander again in the seventh with a two-run shot the opposite way to right field for his 18th of the year.

Kirby (13-11) beat the reigning World Series champions again, five days after facing the minimum 21 batters over seven scoreless innings at home against them. The 26-year-old right-hander is 7-0 with a 1.15 ERA in nine career starts against Texas. He struck out four without a walk this time while allowing two runs on five hits.

“George jumped picked up right where he left off against Texas back at home,” Seattle manager Dan Wilson said.

Nathaniel Lowe had a two-run single for the Rangers (73-81), who have already been eliminated from the AL West race and are on the verge of being officially knocked out of wild-card contention and guaranteed a losing record.

Lowe’s hit ended Kirby’s streak of 34 consecutive scoreless innings against Texas in a span of seven starts since Sept. 28, 2022.

DeGrom struck out five over three innings, and the only run he allowed was when No. 9 batter Josh Rojas led off the third with a homer. Rojas later added a sacrifice fly.

Leiter (0-3) allowed seven runs (six earned) over five innings. He struck out five and walked two while throwing 57 of 92 pitches for strikes.

A week after throwing 3 2/3 scoreless innings in his season debut on the road, also against the Mariners, deGrom threw 37 of 58 pitches for strikes and had one walk. Rangers manager Bruce Bochy had said the 36-year-old right-hander would throw about 60 pitches.

“Definitely felt better than my first one. I think maybe a little bit less nerves, worked on some things in between,” said deGrom, who will get one more start this season. “It’s little things that I’ve got to continue to work on, but my arm felt good and that was the most important thing.”

It was the first start at home for deGrom since he left in the middle of the fourth inning against the New York Yankees on April 28, 2023. That was the sixth and last start in the first season of his $185 million, five-year contract.

UP NEXT

Three-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer (2-4, 3.95 ERA) makes his second start since coming off the IL after missing 40 games with right shoulder fatigue and an arm nerve issue. Rookie right-hander Emerson Hancock (3-4, 4.83) starts for Seattle.

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