'Patient' Mariners chase elusive win vs. Rangers

Seattle Mariners manager Dan Wilson is preaching patience.

Which is exactly what long-suffering fans of the Seattle Mariners — a franchise celebrating its 50th anniversary season while still seeking its first World Series appearance — don’t want to hear.

The host Mariners were shut out this season for the fourth time in 21 games, tied for the most in the major leagues, by the American League West-leading Texas Rangers 5-0 on Friday night.

It was Seattle’s fourth consecutive defeat and dropped them to 0-4 against the Rangers this season. The series will continue Saturday in Seattle.

“We keep talking about it. We keep looking at things and talking about things and trying things,” Wilson said of the Mariners’ offense, which ranks 28th of 30 MLB teams with a .209 batting average. “But sometimes you look at things and at some point you got to get a break here or there to get things rolling. And just, it doesn’t seem like it’s been there for us right yet.

“This is the time of year where you have to be patient. There’s a long season ahead of us.”

Mariners third baseman and leadoff hitter Brendan Donovan, one of the offense’s few bright spots, had to leave after three innings Friday due to a left hip issue. Wilson said Donovan would be re-evaluated Saturday.

Six Rangers pitchers combined on a six-hitter in the series opener as Jacob deGrom needed 88 pitches to get through four innings and didn’t last the requisite five frames to qualify for the decision. That gave rookie right-hander Gavin Collyer an opportunity for his first MLB victory, and he took advantage of it.

“Yeah, Jacob, the pitch count just in the first inning, it drove up and just couldn’t really recover. He still gave us four shutout innings, but we had to cover a lot of innings in the bullpen,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “Jacob was grinding through it. I mean, he didn’t feel great the whole night, and then for the bullpen to come in and do what they did against a really tough team was really impressive.

“And Collyer to get his first one. Pretty cool, be a good moment. It was just fun to see him go out there and execute like he did.”

Wyatt Langford, Jake Burger and Josh Jung all contributed three hits to the Rangers’ 15-hit attack, and Brandon Nimmo provided the only run Texas needed when he hit a leadoff homer in the first inning.

Saturday’s game is scheduled to feature a pair of right-handers in the Rangers’ Nathan Eovaldi (2-2, 5.40 ERA) and the Mariners’ George Kirby (2-2, 3.25).

Eovaldi has won his past two starts, including 3-2 against the visiting Mariners on April 7 when he went six innings and allowed two runs on six hits, with two walks and seven strikeouts. He then pitched seven scoreless innings in an 8-1 victory against the Athletics on Monday in West Sacramento, Calif.

Eovaldi is 3-4 with a 5.27 ERA in 14 career starts against Seattle.

Kirby snapped a two-start losing streak with a 6-2 victory against visiting Houston on Monday, when he allowed two runs over 7 2/3 innings. Kirby took the loss against the Rangers and Eovaldi on April 7 despite giving up three runs over eight innings.

Kirby is 8-1 with a 1.31 ERA in 11 previous starts vs. the Rangers.

–Field Level Media