Texas Rangers seize control of key series vs. Mariners

Nathan Eovaldi and Wyatt Langford, playing with an injured ankle, push the Texas Rangers to a 7-1 victory over the Mariners than leaves them in a good spot in a key series.

ARLINGTON — The first game of a baseball series, it is often said, is the most important, and Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker is a believer … in regard to a three-game series. He says a four-gamer, though, puts as much importance on a Game 2 win as the opener.

Win the first two, and a team needs to win only one of the final two to win the series. The worst-case scenario is a series split. That’s where the Rangers stand in a key four-game set against the Mariners.

Nathan Eovaldi tossed seven strong innings, and the offense scored five times in the first two frames en route to a 7-1 victory over the Mariners that pushed the Rangers’ lead in the American League West to two games over the Astros.

Regardless of what happens Sunday and Monday to finish the series, the Rangers will still be in first place and no worse than a .500 team. A series win, though, will go a long way toward convincing the front office to make additions at the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

“It makes me hungry for more,” said Eovaldi, who allowed one run on three hits and struck out eight. “It’s important to win the series. You don’t want to just split it. I think right now we’ve got the momentum in our favor, and it’s just going out there and continuing to do what we’ve been doing.”

The job’s not done, obviously, not in this series, not in the lead-up to the trade deadline and not in the division race. It’s still July, after all. Next weekend’s series at Houston is shaping up to be the most important of the season, with the Astros riding a five-game winning streak back into contention.

To the Rangers’ credit, they aren’t planning any parades based on the past two games. They can’t, now with Josh Jung (left calf) now on the injured list. Corey Seager (back) could be back in a matter of days, but Wyatt Langford fouled two pitches off his left ankle in the second inning and left the game after the sixth.

Langford said x-rays were negative and that the swelling came down with ice. He expects to play Sunday after not wanting to exit Saturday’s game early.

He helped get the Rangers rolling against Bryan Woo with a one-out double in the first. He quickly scored as Ezequiel Duran followed with a triple. After Brandon Nimmo walked, Evan Carter lined a double past third base, and Nimmo scored as Nicky Lopez followed with an RBI groundout.

The Rangers scored two with two outs in the second. Langford eventually doubled in Joc Pederson after the two foul balls to his foot and scored somewhat gingerly as Duran followed with a single for a 5-0 lead.

Running was no picnic.

“It felt as good as it looked,” Langford said.

The Mariners scored their run in the fifth and made Eovaldi work in the sixth. He returned for the seventh at 84 pitches and exited seven pitches later with a perfect inning. He was sick last weekend at Atlanta and has dealt with a sore left knee this season, but he gutted out seven innings against the Mariners.

Alejandro Osuna doubled in two in the Rangers’ seventh, which allowed them to stay away from their high-leverage relievers.

The Rangers like their chances Sunday with Jacob deGrom starting and with a gritty group of players keeping the club competitve as it deals with having 14 players on the IL.

“We have guys that are in the lineup that love to play baseball,” Schumaker said. “They just can’t wait to come play. There’s a lot of guys that are banged up right now. There’s no doubt about it, but you wouldn’t know it the by the style of play that they’re playing with and how hard they’re playing.”

^{Jeff Wilson, jwilson@alldlls.com}