Mariners rout Rangers as wild card hopefuls meet

MARINERS 10, RANGERS 3

ARLINGTON, Texas — Kyle Seager put himself in some elite Seattle Mariners company with another big blast against Texas.

Seager and Ben Gamel both hit three-run home runs to help power the Mariners to a 10-3 victory Tuesday night in a matchup of wild card hopefuls.

“We’ve been in some tight ball games, and haven’t quite been able to get over the hump,” Seager said. “So it’s nice to get a bunch of runs early and kind of let everything settle down.”

The Mariners led 7-1 after Seager went deep in the third for his 150th career home run. He became only the third player to reach 150 home runs with the Mariners before turning 30 — joining Alex Rodriguez (696 career home runs) and Hall of Fame outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. (630).

Seager’s 22 home runs against the Rangers are his most against any team, and matched Mike Trout and Adam Lind for the most by an active player against Texas.

Texas (72-72) and Seattle (72-73) have split the first two games of their four-game series. The Rangers dropped three games behind Minnesota for the American League’s second wild card, while the Mariners remained 31/2 back after the Twins also won.

Mariners Manager Scott Servais said he felt his team, with 17 games left, responded well after a meeting before Tuesday’s game.

“I thought we did get after it,” Servais said. “It’s too late if you wait till there’s five or six games left, so you’ve got to win them all. Our guys are focused.”

Marco Gonzales (1-1), traded from

St. Louis to Seattle on July 21, got his first victory in six starts for Seattle. The lefty struck out 6 while allowing 3 runs over 5 innings, his longest