Joc Pederson homered in each of the first two innings as the Texas Rangers defeated the Seattle Mariners 7-3 in an American League West showdown Monday afternoon in Arlington, Texas.
Ezequiel Duran and Jake Burger both homered in the third for the Rangers, who won three of four games in the series against the defending division champions to take a 2 1/2-game lead over the Mariners atop the AL West.
Brandon Nimmo hit a pair of doubles and Evan Carter had another as seven of the Rangers’ 11 hits were for extra bases.
Randy Arozarena went deep for the Mariners, who have lost five of their past six games and will next head to Los Angeles for a three-game series with the reigning World Series champion Dodgers.
Rangers right-hander Kumar Rocker (4-8) pitched 6 2/3 quality innings, giving up two runs on four hits. He walked two and fanned seven.
Mariners starter George Kirby (8-9), who was 9-1 with a 1.33 ERA in 12 previous starts against the Rangers, allowed all four home runs to match a career high. The right-hander lasted just four innings, giving up seven runs on seven hits, with no walks and three strikeouts.
Pederson led off the bottom of the first with a 418-foot blast to left-center field.
The Mariners tied it in the second on Arozarena’s blast to right-center that just eluded the reach of center fielder Carter.
In the bottom of the inning, Nicky Lopez reached on an infield single with one out and Elias Diaz was hit by a pitch an out later. Pederson hit a towering shot down the right field line to put the Rangers up 4-1.
The Mariners got a run in the third as Colt Emerson and Cole Young led off with singles and Julio Rodriguez lofted a sacrifice fly to left.
Duran led off the bottom of the inning with a homer to left-center. Carter doubled to right with one out and stole third before Burger lined a shot over the fence in left-center to make it 7-2.
The score remained stagnant until the ninth when Seattle’s Josh Naylor led off with a double, advanced to third on a single by Mitch Garver and scored on J.P. Crawford’s sacrifice fly.
