Rangers rally past Mariners in Kumar Rocker's debut

Nathaniel Lowe homered and later drove in the go-ahead run with an infield single as the Texas Rangers rallied for a 5-4 victory against the host Seattle Mariners on Thursday.

The game also featured the major league debut of touted Rangers pitcher Kumar Rocker, who struck out seven in four innings of one-run ball.

Josh Jung and Marcus Semien added solo shots for the Rangers (71-76), who snapped a two-game skid by taking the opener of a five-game series.

Former Mariner Matt Festa (4-1) pitched a scoreless inning of relief for the victory, and Kirby Yates worked the ninth for his 30th save of the season.

Reliever Collin Snider (3-3) took the loss for the Mariners (74-73), who dropped 4 1/2 games back in both the American League West and AL wild-card races.

Rocker, the third overall pick in the 2022 draft, gave up three hits and two walks.

The 24-year-old right-hander stranded a pair of runners in both the first and third innings before Justin Turner went deep to straightaway center on a 3-2 fastball with one out in the fourth. That tied the score at 1-1 after Jung had homered in the second.

Trailing 4-2, the Rangers took the lead with three runs in the eighth.

Semien went deep to left-center off Snider with one out in to pull Texas within a run. Josh Smith then reached on a fielding error by first baseman Luke Raley and Wyatt Langford doubled to left-center, sending Smith to third.

The Rangers tied the score on Adolis Garcia's slow-rolling groundout to shortstop J.P. Crawford. The Mariners brought in left-hander Tayler Saucedo to face Lowe, who reached on an infield single on a ball that went off the glove of diving second baseman Jorge Polanco. Langford scored the go-ahead run on the play.

The Mariners broke a 1-1 tie with three runs in the fifth off Rangers relievers Gerson Garabito and Andrew Chafin.

With one out, Victor Robles lined a single to center and Julio Rodriguez walked off Garabito. Chafin came in and walked Cal Raleigh to load the bases. Randy Arozarena lined a two-run single to center to make it 3-1. Raleigh took third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.

Lowe led off the seventh with a homer to left off reliever Troy Taylor.

Mariners right-hander Bryce Miller, who was 0-3 with a 12.66 ERA in three previous starts against Texas, allowed one run on five hits over six innings, with one walk and seven strikeouts.

Snider got just two outs while yielding three runs (one earned) on two hits.

--Field Level Media