ARLINGTON, Texas — Yorvit Torrealba homered in consecutive innings, including a grand slam, after Derek Holland pitched his scheduled five innings for his 16th victory and the AL West champion Texas Rangers beat Seattle 12-5 Sunday in their final home game of the regular season.
Adrian Beltre and Ian Kinsler also homered for the Rangers, who matched a franchise record with their 52nd win at home.
Texas stayed a game ahead of Detroit for the second-best record in the American League and home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. The Rangers have won 11 of their past 13 games, including the three-game weekend sweep of Seattle.
Kinsler's two-run shot in the third off rookie left-hander Charlie Furbush (4-10) snapped a 1-1 tie and put Texas ahead to stay before Mike Napoli added an RBI single later in the inning. It was the 31st homer for Kinsler, equaling a career high for the Rangers' leadoff hitter.
Beltre led off the second with his 30th homer, hitting the ninth pitch he got onto the hill in center. It was his 10th homer in his past 13 games.
Torrealba hit a solo homer in the sixth for a 7-4 lead. An inning later, the catcher had his first career multi-homer game when he hit his fourth career grand slam.
Alex Liddi, Chris Gimenez, Mike Carp and Kyle Seager homered for Seattle, which played its final road game of the season.
Manager Ron Washington said before the game that Holland (16-5) would likely go only five innings in his last start before the playoffs. The left-hander struck out seven, walked one and gave up three runs on the homers by Liddi and Gimenez. Holland threw 54 of his 74 pitches for strikes.
Texas (93-66) has to finish ahead of the Tigers to open the playoffs at home Friday.
The Rangers wrap up the regular season with three games at the Los Angeles Angels, who could still win the wild card. Detroit plays three games at home against Cleveland.
Kinsler had a leadoff walk in the fifth before stealing second and third base, extended his team record to 28 consecutive successful attempts — that streak ended when he was caught stealing to end the sixth. After his two stolen bases, Kinsler scored when Esteban German hit a liner that was misplayed by center fielder Trayvon Robinson and rolled to the wall.
Two days after Craig Gentry's inside-the-park home run for Texas, German sprinted around the bases and scored for a 6-3 lead while the fireworks were shot off like they are for homers at Rangers Ballpark. But German was officially scored with a sacrifice fly and Robinson a rare four-base error.
Furbush allowed six runs, five earned, and six hits over 4 1-3 innings. He struck out four and walked one.
Gimenez hit a solo homer in the third, an inning before Liddi's two-run shot to get the Mariners within 4-3.
Carp led off the sixth with a blast in the second deck of seats in right to greet reliever Darren O'Day.
The only other time the Rangers won 52 games at home was in 1978. With a crowd of 43,508 Sunday, they set a franchise record for season attendance at 2,946,949.
Notes: Texas finished 15-4 against Seattle. ... The only Ranger with more September homers than Beltre is Alex Rodriguez, who had 11 in 2001. ... Beltre's only other 30-homer season was 2004, when he had 48 for the Los Angeles Dodgers. ... C.J. Wilson (16-7), who will be the Texas starter for the opening game of the playoffs, makes his last scheduled start of the regular season Monday night against the Angels. Washington said Wilson will throw "maybe three innings." ... Seattle LHP Jason Vargas is going for his career-high 10th victory Monday at home against Oakland. ... Seattle finished 28-50 on the road. The Mariners got three extra games at home when Florida had to play its three-game "home" series in Seattle because of a scheduling conflict.
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