ARLINGTON, Texas _ Veteran infielder Derek Dietrich joked before Wednesday's game that he's always ready to go.
He was asked a while back when he was still with the Cincinnati Reds how he stays in baseball shape.
For the 31-year-old who was signed with the Texas Rangers on Tuesday, staying in game shape has been a given since being drafted by the Houston Astros in the third round in 2007.
"My answer was: you never get out of shape, and I truly believe that," Dietrich said before going 3-for-3 with a double and two runs scored in his Rangers' debut Wednesday night. "I've never been out of shape a day in my life. I've made do with what I could as far as safe ways of training; I worked in baseball fields by myself, doing some one-hand drills and drills up against cages. Anything I could do within the guidelines to stay ready and keep my body ready."
Dietrich, who became the first Rangers player to reach safely four times in his Texas debut, helped lead a come-from-behind 7-4 win over the Seattle Mariners by starting a five-run eighth. Joey Gallo was the last player to reach base safely four times in his Rangers' debut.
"It was fun. We didn't get them all at once until the end there but a little bit here, a little bit there, and then you start rolling the lineup," said Dietrich, who started the eighth-inning rally with a one-out single, his third hit of the night. He also was hit by a pitch. "I was pumped up. I don't know if it was the crowd noise or the clamoring in the dugout but it felt good to feel that again. It's been a little bit (of time) for me."
Elvis Andrus followed with a double and Todd Frazier was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Jeff Mathis and the Rangers trailing 4-2. Mathis' bloop single fell just out of the reach of shortstop J.P. Crawford in shallow left field to score Dietrich to pull Texas to within 4-3.
Shin-Soo Choo's sacrifice fly to right score Andrus to tie it at 4-4 before Isiah Kiner-Falefa was hit by a pitch to load the bases again. Right-hander Taylor Williams, who replaced right-hander Erik Swanson on the mound to face left-hitting Willie Calhoun, threw a wild pitch that bounced several feet in front of the plate to allow Frazier to score the go-ahead run. Calhoun drove in two more with a single to left to give the Rangers a three-run lead. The Rangers batted around in the inning.
Seattle scored four runs in the second behind home runs from Austin Nola and Daniel Vogelbach. Nola's solo homer to center field gave Seattle a 1-0 lead. Two batters later, Vogelbach's two-run homer made it 3-0. Another run scored on Kyle Lewis' sacrifice fly to right.
All four runs were charged to starter Jordan Lyles, who went five innings, allowing six hits, four walks and striking out four.
The Rangers' bullpen combined to allow two hits and a walk over the final four innings, which included an inning each from Brett Martin, Ian Gibaut, Jonathan Hernandez and Rafael Montero, who earned his fourth save with a perfect ninth.
"That's a huge victory for so many reasons," Rangers manager Chris Woodward said after his team finished its homestand 5-1. The Rangers are off Thursday before starting a three-game series against the Rockies in Colorado on Friday. They return to Arlington against the Padres on Monday. "That's huge for us."
It wasn't just the win, however, that had Woodward stoked. He was excited about how his club scratched back to cut Seattle's four-run lead in half with some manufactured runs.
"The way we got back into the game I thought was critical," he said, pointing to Shin-Soo Choo's steal of second and later scoring on Calhoun's single in the seventh.
"The one thing is we know it's not going to be easy," he said. "Offensively, we haven't hit as well as we'd like, but we've still managed to win some games offensively by doing some small ball _ stealing bases, getting big hits. Today, we got a couple hit-by-pitches. We controlled the strike zone. Those are things we have to do to win tough games like tonight. Joey's not going to hit a three-run homer every night to give us a win."
Woodward, of course, was also elated with the energy and production he saw from Dietrich, who was in at second in place of the struggling Rougned Odor.
"We've had a ton of energy obviously before we got him," he said. "I feel like we've done a good job, especially in the dugout, but he just adds a little bit more to that. It just never quits and that's just kind of his mentality. He and Todd Frazier are very similar in the energy that they bring in the dugout so we welcome, everybody that has that kind of energy, that kind of spirit. That's what we want in our ballclub."
Dietrich is more than happy to supply the boost.
"The confidence and the preparation, when that meets opportunity then beautiful things happen," he said. "So I was just trying to keep that mindset going."
