SEATTLE _ Labor Day afternoon brought with it the promise of a pitchers' duel.
Cole Hamels of the Texas Rangers entered the series opener Monday against the Mariners at Safeco Field with an earned-run average of 2.91, third-best in the American League. Seattle was coming off a disheartening series defeat against the Angels, its bats having gone quiet for most of the weekend.
Hamels was set to go against Felix Hernandez, not having a vintage year by his standards but still one of the most respected hurlers in the league.
Instead, a good old-fashioned wild AL West shootout broke out.
The Mariners chased Hamels in the top of the second inning en route to a 14-6 victory in front of 23,618 Monday afternoon.
Seattle (70-67) knocked out 14 hits, scored five runs in the bottom of the first and batted all the way around in the sixth. Seven different Mariners had a hit. Franklin Gutierrez and Jesus Sucre each had three of them, with Gutierrez adding four RBI and Dae-Ho Lee delivering three.
Guillermo Heredia earned a leadoff walk in the bottom of the first, which was quickly followed up by a two-run home run from Robinson Cano to open the scoring. Lee singled, Leonys Martin doubled and Sucre scored a pair of runs with a two-out line drive into center field.
Gutierrez homered in the second to make it 6-0, and Lee drove home another with a two-out single that knocked Hamels out of the game for good.
All the action made for a busy box score, all diagonal lines and darkened-in diamonds.
Hernandez's outing was impressive only by comparison.
Seattle's ace lasted 5 2/3 innings, surrendering five runs _ all of which came in the top of the third and momentarily looked like they would send him, as Hamels, toward an early exit.
Texas (82-56) batted around in the third. Even with the early cushion, every lead is somewhat tenuous against an offense as explosive as the Rangers'.
Six different Rangers entered the day with 20-plus home runs, none of whom were named Nomar Mazara, and he's the one who sparked the big frame with a three-run shot over the right-field wall.
Hernandez (10-5, 3.75 ERA) was rocked back onto his heels. He could've capitulated then and there.
The Mariners had lost nine of 11 games coming in, losing large swathes of land in the wild-card race. As evidenced by the sparse holiday attendance, it's officially football season in the Pacific Northwest.
But Hernandez, who reached the 10-win plateau for the seventh consecutive season, steadied himself. He retired the side in order in both the fourth and fifth innings, allowing the game to settle. Despite not even making it out of the top of the sixth, he still walked off to a loud ovation and a lead his teammates would hold.
Seattle blew the game open for a second time in the bottom of the sixth, settling any lingering nerves for good.
Nelson Cruz slid around an attempted tag by Rangers catcher Jonathan Lucroy to make it 9-6, and Kyle Seager scored on a wild pitch. Gutierrez knocked in his third and fourth runs of the day with a ground-rule double, and Cruz set the final score with a sacrifice fly to right.
Labor Day afternoon might have started with the promise of a pitchers' duel, but nearly four hours later, that notion had long since been dispelled.
