ARLINGTON, Texas-Ben Gamel and Kyle Seager both hit three-run homers and the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 10-3 on Tuesday night in a matchup of wild card hopefuls.
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 3 1/2 back after the Twins also won.
Seager's homer in the third made it 7-1 and chased Miguel Gonzalez (7-11), who made his second start overall and first at home for the Rangers since they acquired him in an Aug. 31 trade with the Chicago White Sox. Gonzalez allowed seven runs and seven hits while recording only seven outs.
Marco Gonzales (1-1), traded from St. Louis to Seattle on July 21, got his first victory in six starts for the Mariners. The lefty struck out six while allowing three runs over five innings, his longest outing this season.
Willie Calhoun, the prized prospect the Rangers got when they traded Yu Darvish to the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 31, had an RBI single in his first major league at-bat. He finished 1 for 4.
Texas purchased Calhoun's contract from Triple-A Round Rock, which had already finished its season. The 22-year-old batted seventh and played left field in his big league debut.
The first action for Calhoun came in the second when Mike Zunino had an RBI single to left, a play when the 5-foot-8 left fielder cleanly fielded the ball. But his throw was just a bit off line and Nelson Cruz slid in just ahead of the tag for a 1-0 lead. Gamel immediately followed with his homer.
Calhoun ran a long way to make a sliding catch along the left-field line to take a potential hit away from Seager in the fifth, two innings after the Mariners third baseman went deep for the 24th time.
When Seager hit another ball to left in the eighth, Calhoun made another sliding attempt but umpires ruled he trapped the ball that was in his glove. He still got a forceout at second base after a base runner retreated to first thinking the catch had been made.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Rangers: 3B Adrian Beltre (left hamstring strain) was activated from the DL, even though he hasn't run since getting hurt Aug. 31. The newest member of the 3,000-hit club took BP on the field. It was still unclear when he might be available to play again this season, if at all. Keone Kela (right shoulder soreness), who last pitched Aug. 4, was reinstated from the DL.
UP NEXT
Mariners: Mike Leake has won both of starts for Seattle since being acquired from St. Louis on Aug. 30.
Rangers: Martin Perez (12-10) has won seven consecutive starts, one short of the Rangers club record set by Kenny Rogers in 2005.