SEATTLE (AP) — Cole Hamels dominated for eight innings, Adrian Beltre and Shin-Soo Choo went deep and the Texas Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners 4-2 on Thursday night to hang around the AL wild-card hunt.
Texas and the Los Angeles Angels are 2 1/2 games behind Minnesota for the second wild card. The Angels lost to Cleveland, while the Twins blew out Detroit.
Hamels (11-4) allowed three hits and a run while striking out eight. He gave up a solo homer to Nelson Cruz — his 35th — in the seventh, along with a pair of singles to Jean Segura.
Keone Kela got his second save despite yielding a solo homer to Robinson Cano in the ninth. It was Cano’s 22nd this season and 300th of his career.
The Mariners have lost five straight games and are five back in the wild-card chase with nine games remaining.
James Paxton (12-5) allowed two runs in 3 2/3 choppy innings.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
