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Mariners pitcher Erik Swanson, his wife received death threats after walkoff loss

Seattle Mariners pitcher Erik Swanson took to social media on Sunday afternoon to ask that fans stop threatening him and his family following their loss to the Texas Rangers.

Swanson, who was pitching in the ninth inning of their second straight walkoff loss at Globe Life Field, said that his wife and his family had been receiving death threats both in their direct messages and in comments on Instagram.

“Today, I should have been better. I take full responsibility for today’s loss,” he wrote, in part. “I have no problem seeing fans yell at me and call me everything in the book inside my DMs. But when you threaten my family and go inside my wife’s DMs and comment on her pictures wishing death upon us, that’s where I draw the line.”

Mariners lose on another walkoff

Rangers rookie Jonah Heim hit his second walkoff home run on Sunday night in two days to lead the Rangers to a 4-3 win over Seattle.

The Rangers entered the bottom of the ninth down 3-1, but Andy Ibanez hit a two-run home run to tie things up before Heim hit his homer to deep center field to seal the deal.

Heim did the same thing on Saturday night, hitting a two-run shot in the bottom of the 10th to lead Texas to a 5-4 win.

“You can’t find words to describe it,” Texas manager Chris Woodward said, via The Associated Press. “Just the energy that brings the clubhouse, the fans. Obviously it's been a rough year. Those two games are pretty special.”

Swanson had missed more than a month in the Injured List with a right groin strain, but he hadn’t given up a run since May — a span of nearly 13 innings for the closer. On Sunday, though, he couldn’t get a single out.

“There’s not one guy in our clubhouse that shouldn’t be upset about what happened in the last couple of nights,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said, via the Seattle Times. “But I do know something about this group: They’ve got a lot of grit and they don’t quit. We will show up in Tampa. We will come up with great effort and we’ll go into that series expecting to win it even though they’re playing good baseball.”

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