It rained a lot of Rangers offense against the Mariners, and then actual rain

Oh, it rained all right.

By the seventh inning it was the actual endless raindrops that had the Seattle Mariners’ game against the Rangers in doubt and eventually created a lake in Globe Life Park’s outfield. But before that Texas’s offense had already rained plenty of baseballs on the Mariners.

Seattle took an 8-3 loss on Friday at Glove Life Park after another short outing from right-hander Erasmo Ramirez and a five-RBI night for former Mariners third baseman Adrian Beltre before the game was called because of rain and flash flooding in the area after a 1 hour, 9 minute delay that began with Kyle Seager at the plate in the top of the seventh inning.

A game is considered regulation after the fifth inning. That was the first weather-shortened game since Globe Life Park opened in 1994.

This all happened just hours after the Rangers fired manager Jeff Bannister and appointed former Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu as their interim skipper.

When it rains, it pours.

“It wasn’t our night and we didn’t play well,” Mariners manager Scott Servais told reporters afterward.

And the Mariners (84-68) are now 6-7 this year against the Rangers and they play Texas in six of their final nine games of the season.

Fairly fitting that the last action of this one was Nelson Cruz grounding into a double play with two runners on base in the top of the seventh inning.

After three innings, it was Adrian Beltre 5, Mariners 0.

Beltre launched an opposite-field three-run home run with two outs against Ramirez in the first inning. That was Beltre’s 476th career home run, passing Stan Musial and Willie Stargell for 30th on MLB’s career HR list.

He stepped to the plate with two more runners on in the third inning, and, again, two outs. Beltre sent a bloop single to right field for his fourth and fifth RBI of the night.

That gives Beltre 1,703 career RBI, passing Reggie Jackson and Jim Thome for 25th-most in MLB history.

So, yeah, the dry weather lasted a bit longer than Ramirez’s night. He pitched 2 2/3 innings and was charged for six runs on four hits and two walks, raising his season ERA to 6.50 over 10 starts.“

He’s struggling to get a feel for his secondary pitch,” Servais said. “It was a lot of fastballs and cutters and he was missing in the middle of the plate. The home run to Beltre, he hit it to the right spot in the park, but he still got the ball where he wanted it.”

Ramirez exited with Beltre still on base before Roenis Elias entered and allowed back-to-back singles before walking Joey Gallo with the bases loaded.

That wasn’t even the worst of it.

That came in the bottom of the fourth inning when Jurickson Profar got a “double” when the swirling wind caused a fly ball into shallow right field to tail away from Ben Gamel, who dived and couldn’t reach the ball.

Gamel threw into second base where Jean Segura was standing, but it rolled all the way past and into the Rangers’ dugout. So Profar advanced all the way home.

“For whatever reason the past few times we have been out here we have not played well at all, defensively,” Servais said. “The wind played a lot into that. Ben thought he was going to catch it and the wind pushed it back … he wasn’t even close to it.”

Gallo in the bottom of the sixth inning crushed his 38th home run of the season on the first pitch reliever James Pazos threw. It traveled 432 feet.

The Mariners did finally break through for their first run in the fifth inning when Dee Gordon led off with a triple and scored on Mitch Haniger’s groundout. Mike Zunino’s double drove in another run and Jean Segura’s single in the seventh scored Haniger, who led off with a double.

Let’s get to it, a few takeaways:

Hit it, Haniger

In his past 47 games, Mitch Haniger has a hit in 41 of those.

And Haniger’s leadoff walk meant he had reached base in 29 of the past 30 games he’s played.

It’s all added up to a scorching final two months of the season for Haniger, really ever since Servais slid him into the leadoff role. Entering Friday, Haniger’s .332 batting average since Aug. 1 was the fourth-highest in the American League over that span, trailing the Red Sox’s J.D. Martinez (.350), Mookie Betts (.340) and Rays rookie Joey Wendle (.338).

Ramirez roughed

That’s the second time Ramirez hasn’t pitched past the third inning, and it’s the third time in 10 starts he’s pitched four innings or fewer.

He was charged for six runs in 2 2/3 innings in this one, with five of those runs off the bat of Adrian Beltre – a three-run homer and a two-run single.

And for Ramirez, that’s 10 runs allowed in his past two starts after giving up four in four innings against the Angels last week. His season ERA has jumped to a career-high 6.50 over 10 starts.

Play of the game

Erasmo Ramirez left a fastball in the middle of the plate and Adrian Beltre obliged with his 14th home run of the season, a three-run shot, and the 476th of Beltre’s career.

That passed Stan Musial and Willie Stargel for No. 40 on MLB’s career home runs list.

Ramirez allowed three home runs his last start against the Angels and he’s allowed seven homers his past five starts.

Top batter

Adrian Beltre had driven in five Rangers runs before the Mariners knew what hit them.

He finished this seven-inning game going 2-for-3 with a home run and two-run single against his former team.

It’s otherwise been a tough year for the 39-year-old who spent 2005-09 with the Mariners. He’s played his fewest games (94) since his rookie year with the Dodgers in 1998 because of injuries, though he’s still batting .276 this season.

Robinson Cano went 2-for-3 with a walk before the game was called. He’s 8-for-11 his past three games.

Top pitcher

There wasn’t much for pitching in this one. Roenis Elias replaced Erasmo Ramirez for the Mariners in the third inning and he allowed two singles and walked in a run with the bases loaded.

For the Rangers, Ariel Jurado allowed two runs on six hits in five innings after replacing “opener” Connor Sadzeck in the second inning.

Quotable

Servais said the Mariners will decide whether to slide Erasmo Ramirez out of the rotation for the final nine games, especially with James Paxton and Felix Hernandez set to return early next week on the Mariners’ final homestand.

“(Ramirez) got on a pretty nice roll there for a while and it was the command,” Servais said. “He was commanding his stuff and he just hasn’t been commanding it.

“It’s not a lot of back and forth. Everything is coming right at them. It’s the 87-mph cutter and the 91-mph fastball. He needs to get the changeup to get some separation.”

This story was originally published September 21, 2018 at 8:43 PM.