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| Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Jake Arrieta follows through on his pitching delivery during the second inning of the Orioles’ home opening day MLB American League baseball game against the Detroit Tigers in Baltimore, Maryland, on Monday |
Julio Borbon sparked a strong start with a two-RBI triple in the second inning to give his team a 3-0 lead as the Rangers improved to 4-0 for the year.
It is the team’s best start since winning the first seven games of the season in 1996.
“Anybody in the lineup can get you,” Rangers manager Ron Washington told reporters. “But first and foremost we’ve got to pitch and catch the ball. Then after that, we’ll take what we can get.”
Texas, who opened the season by crushing Boston in a three-game sweep, continued to swing the bats well with home runs from Nelson Cruz and Elvis Andrus.
Red-hot Cruz became the third player in Major League history to homer in his first four games of the season while Andrus’ homer was his first since 2009.
“I was prepared in spring training and in the off-season for these moments,” Cruz said. “But the main thing is winning.”
Cruz’s blast gave the Rangers a 4-2 advantage in the fourth and the home side stretched the lead to 6-3 with runs in the fifth and sixth innings.
Texas starting pitcher Derek Holland picked up the win after striking out five batters and allowing three runs in six innings.
Seattle left-hander Erik Bedard allowed five runs in five innings in his first start since 2009. Berdard had undergone multiple surgeries on his throwing shoulder and was sidelined for all of 2010.
Miguel Olivo led Seattle’s offense with two hits and two RBIs as the Mariners fell to 2-2.
Meanwhile, in a last-minute twist in the Barry Bonds trial, prosecutors announced they had a recording of Bonds’ surgeon discussing Bonds and steroids with the slugger’s ex-business manager.
Doctor Arthur Ting threw a wrench in the prosecution’s case last week when he denied ever having conversations about Bonds’ alleged steroids use, contradicting testimony from a key government witness.
That witness, ex-business manager Steve Hoskins, told jurors he’d had “probably 50” conversations with the surgeon about Bonds’ use of banned drugs.