France and Urías hit 2-run HRs as Mariners beat Texas 4-3 to take series and top spot in AL West

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Ty France and Luis Urías hit two-run homers, Luis Castillo pitched six solid innings and Seattle beat the Texas Rangers 4-3 on Thursday, taking two of three in the series and leaving with first place in the AL West.

Julio Rodríguez, leading off after shortstop J.P. Crawford went on the injured list with a right oblique strain, opened with a single and scored on France's first homer of the season.

Andrew Heaney (0-3) retired the next 10 batters after France went deep until Dylan Moore, at shortstop in place of Crawford, led off the fifth with a double. Urías then homered to break a 2-2 tie.

Castillo (2-4) struck out six and walked two while allowing two runs and four hits. Andrés Muñoz, the third Seattle reliever, worked a perfect ninth for his third save in four chances.

Heaney also went six innings, with seven strikeouts and no walks. But the left-hander gave up the four runs on the two long balls.

Nathaniel Lowe and Josh Smith hit solo homers for reigning World Series champion Texas (13-13), which had been first in the division all season before losing the series opener to the Mariners (13-12). The Rangers went back on top by a half-game with a 5-1 win Wednesday.

Rangers shortstop Corey Seager was the designated hitter after leaving Wednesday night's game with a bruised left shin from getting hit by a pitch in the seventh inning.

There were runners at first and third with two outs in the seventh Thursday, right after Marcus Semien's RBI single cut the deficit to 4-3, when Seager struck out trying to check his swing on a high pitch. The World Series MVP is hitless in his last 16 at-bats, part of a bigger 5-for-51 (.098) slide over 14 games to drop his season batting average from .301 to .247.

Texas had a runner at third with one out in the second inning when second baseman Jorge Polanco made a running, over-the-shoulder grab in shallow center field on a soft flare hit by Ezequiel Durán.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Mariners: Crawford was placed on the 10-day IL after tweaking his right oblique during batting practice Wednesday. INF Leo Rivas was brought up from Triple-A Tacoma and RHP Gregory Santos (right lat) was transferred from the 15-day to 60-day injured list.

Rangers: RHP Josh Sborz was activated from the 15-day IL after missing 17 games with a right rotator cuff strain, and pitched a perfect ninth. RHP Grant Anderson was optioned to Triple-A Round Rock.

UP NEXT

Mariners: Play their fifth National League team already this season in the opener of a three-game series at home against Arizona on Friday night. Their 12 interleague games so far are most in the majors.

Rangers: Open a three-game series against Cincinnati with right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (1-2, 3.30 ERA) starting Friday night.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Stephen Hawkins, The Associated Press