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Adam Lind's 2 home runs lead Seattle past Texas 8-3

Seattle Mariners' Adam Lind hits a grand slam against the Texas Rangers in the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

 

SEATTLE — Adam Lind hit the fourth grand slam of his career as part of Seattle's five-run first inning, added a solo home run in his next at-bat and led the Mariners to a 8-3 victory over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night.

Lind's 19th and 20th homers of the season helped Seattle jump to an 8-0 lead and kept the Mariners on the fringe of the AL wild card race, five games behind Baltimore. It was the 12th career multi-homer game of Lind's career and his second this season.

The homers from Lind were plenty for starter Ariel Miranda in his strongest performance since joining the Mariners.

Miranda (3-1) allowed one hit and two baserunners through five innings and was nearly untouched through six before an error kept the sixth inning alive and was capped by Carlos Beltran's three-run homer.

Miranda faced one batter in the seventh before being pulled. He won his second straight start, striking out four and walking three. Texas saw its streak snapped of eight straight games scoring at least six runs.

Seattle was already up 1-0 on Texas starter A.J. Griffin after Seth Smith's leadoff double and Ketel Marte's single. Base hits by Robinson Cano and Kyle Seager loaded the bases for Lind. Griffin left a fastball elevated over the plate and Lind drove it to deep center field to give Seattle a 5-0 lead.

Lind's opposite-field home run to left in the third gave Seattle a 7-0 lead and Smith's 13th homer of the season in the fourth pushed the lead to 8-0. Batting leadoff for the second time this season, Smith was on base four times and scored three runs.

Griffin (7-4) lasted four innings, giving up seven hits and all eight runs. Griffin had won his previous two decisions and the four innings was his second-shortest outing of the season.

LEWIS RETURNS

Rangers manager Jeff Banister said Colby Lewis will return to the Rangers rotation this weekend and is scheduled to start on Sunday against the Angels. Lewis has been out since June 21 with a strained muscle in his right shoulder. Before going on the DL, Lewis was 6-1 with a 3.21 ERA in 15 starts. Lewis' return will give the Rangers six pitchers in their rotation for the final few weeks.

UP NEXT

Rangers: Derek Holland (7-6) will start the series finale. Holland is 2-1 with a 2.00 ERA in three starts since coming off the DL on Aug. 23.

Mariners: Taijuan Walker (4-10) looks to rebound from the shortest start of his career. Walker gave up five earned runs and six hits and recorded just two outs in a loss to the Angels. He's 0-3 with a 7.90 ERA in his last three starts.