Texas Rangers knew what was at stake vs. Mariners and answered the call

Joc Pederson delivered a leadoff homer Monday afternoon and the biggest blow of the game, a three-run homer in the third, as the Texas Rangers finished off a key series against the Mariners with a win (Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images).

Joc Pederson hit two of the Texas Rangers’ four home runs in the first three innings Monday en route to a 7-3 victory and a series win against the division-rival Mariners.

ARLINGTON — The trade deadline is coming, and the Texas Rangers know that. They knew Friday that anything less than a series win against the Mariners wouldn’t be good enough, both in the division race and on the trade front.

How did they handle the situation, and even the pressure? The spent the past four days putting themselves in position to be buyers next Monday. Barring disaster over the next six games, buying seems like a forgone conclusion.

The Rangers were convincing enough against the Mariners to justify making deadline additions. The Rangers won three of the four games against the team closest to them in the American League West, securing the series win Monday with a power-heavy 7-3 victory.

Joc Pederson hit home runs in the first two innings, a leadoff shot in the first and a three-run tally in the second, and Ezequiel Duran and Jake Burger added homers in the third. Kumar Rocker took the lead and ran with it into the seventh inning for his second quality start of the homestand.

A lot of good came from the four-game series, but the best thing is the Rangers did what they do to do with a division lead and trade-deadline implications at stake.

“Every win matters, but I think the ones right before the deadline, there’s always a little more stress, I guess you could say, around that time, or attention, especially in a situation where you could go either way,” Pederson said. “But I think we put ourselves in a good spot, and we’ve got to continue to play like that. There’s a long way to go, but it was a huge series for us.”

Anytime you go 3-1, I think you you answered the call and rose to the occasion.

The victory moved the Rangers 2 1/2 games ahead in the AL West pending the outcome of the Astros’ game Monday night against the Angels. A win would move the Astros within two games of the Rangers with a head-to-head matchup coming this weekend at Houston.

A two-game lead might not be much, but the margin was only a half-game Friday. The Rangers are the only team in the division above .500 (54-52).

While managaer Skip Schumaker said he isn’t looking at the trade deadline, his players are. Burger said that the Rangers felt a split with the Mariners would have been a failure and were determined to win Monday.

He said they have edge ahead of the deadline, and performances like the one Pederson had Monday fuels them. He took George Kirby into the Mariners’ bullpen as the Rangers’ first batter, his sixth leadoff homer of the season, and he knocked Kirby to the canvas in the second with a two-out three-run homer into the right-field corner.

Duran found the second deck to start the third, and Burger followed two batters later with a laser to left. Rocker found a groove that he carried through 6 2/3 innings in his second straight quality start. Schumaker wanted the win badly enough to use All-Star closer Jacob Latz in the ninth, when the Mariners scored the game’s final run.

Up next is a three-game series at Tampa, which leads the AL East, and three at Houston, which has crept back into contention and is committed to being a buyer at the trade deadline. Burger said the Rangers shouldn’t suffer any letdowns this week.

“I don’t I don’t see this clubhouse losing that edge,” Burger said. “Obviously, Nicky Lopez coming in here, setting the vibes. Joc Pederson doing whatever he’s doing after home runs , but it gets the boys going. I think this group’s really meshing.”

The Rangers are looking like buyers, too. Corey Seager and Jordan Montgomery are due to come off the injured list this week. The offense has found something, and the rotation had its best series of the month.

The Rangers did what they had to do in a critical series that had implications in the division race and with the trade deadline. That might tell the front office more about the team’s playoff chances than the on-field results.

“Anytime you go 3-1, I think you answered the call and rose to the occasion,” Pederson said.

Jeff Wilson, [email protected]