 has thrown six innings in each of his past three starts and allowed two earned runs with 16 strikeouts.''It's a matter of just trusting your stuff, seeing the target and drive into that target and aggressively pitching,'' Sheffield said. ''I feel like that's my style.'' The Rangers held a team meeting following their seventh straight loss and manager Chris Woodward said he could sense the mounting frustration.''I know they're trying, I know they're trying to compete, but we've got to start coming up with some solutions to this because we're not going to win too many games; it's not a good recipe for success,'' Woodward said.Lyles (1-3) was roughed up for the second straight start. He allowed seven earned runs in his last outing against San Diego and was knocked around for eight earned runs and 11 hits by the Mariners.Woodward questioned if Lyles may be tipping his pitches.''When teams have something on a guy, a lot of times you don't know it until it's seven or eight runs, kind of like it was. It's kind of been similar to that the last couple of outings for him,'' Woodward said.After missing the previous two games with a sore knee - the result of a foul ball off his kneecap - White got started immediately. White stayed back on a 3-2 curveball from Lyles and lined it fair down the left-field line for a two-out, two-run double in the first inning.In his next at-bat, Lyles was ahead of White in the count and his two-strike fastball tailed inside. But White was able to pull his hands in, get the barrel on the fastball and drive it out to left field for his third homer in his past four games.''Some of those hits were with two strikes so I'm feeling confident and comfortable and trying to keep that same mentality each and every at-bat,'' White said.Austin Nola also had two hits and an RBI for Seattle and Shed Long Jr. snapped a 0-for-21 skid with an RBI double in the seventh inning.WRONG JERSEYRangers reliver Jesse Chavez pitched seventh inning and allowed one run while striking out two. But his outing was more notable because he was wearing the wrong blue jersey. Chavez was wearing the Rangers spring training jersey and not their game jersey.ROSTER MOVESeattle placed IF/OF Dylan Moore on the 10-day injured list with a sprained right wrist and recalled OF Jake Fraley from its alternate training site. The move with Moore is retroactive to Friday. Moore was hitting .282 with five home runs and 10 RBIs in 21 games, playing a mix of infield and outfield positions. Fraley appeared in 12 games last season with Seattle.UP NEXTRangers: LHP Mike Minor (0-4, 6.94) looks for his first win of the season. Minor has yet to complete six innings and is the first member of the Rangers rotation to go winless through his first five starts since Ross Detwiler in 2015.Mariners: RHP Justin Dunn (1-1, 7.80) gave up six runs and lasted just two innings in his last start against the Dodgers. Dunn beat the Rangers two weeks ago in Texas allowing two runs in six innings.---More MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/-Sports)
Mariners' Sheffield confident ahead of start vs. struggling RangersIt seems all Justus Sheffield needed was a little confidence.Sheffield (1-2, 4.12 ERA), winless in his first nine major-league starts, finally got untracked with a victory against Colorado on Aug. 9, pitching six scoreless innings without walking a batter and striking out seven. He followed that with a no-decision in Houston despite allowing just two runs (one earned) on six hits in six innings, with one walk and four strikeouts.The 24-year-old left-hander is scheduled to start again Saturday night when the Mariners host the Texas Rangers. He's 0-0 with a 6.00 ERA in one career relief appearance against the Rangers."He's throwing strikes and he's getting his fastball to the glove side, which has opened up his slider off that," Mariners manager Scott Servais said of Sheffield. "We are really excited with the growth and where he's headed. The projection, it's going in the right direction. Hopefully, he'll continue to build on those. Once you start getting to three, four or five of those types of outings together, your confidence should grow. He's got a ton of confidence right now." In a sign of maturity and poise, Sheffield limited a Houston rally to one run after an infield error."You have to dig deep," Sheffield said. "I just take a step off the mound, catch my breath and get back to work. You know things are going to happen. You've got to expect them to happen and not let them take over your game. I just wanted to continue to make my pitches." The Rangers are scheduled to counter with right-hander Jordan Lyles (1-2, 7.52) whose results over his past two starts have been the opposite of Sheffield's.Lyles has allowed 10 earned runs over nine innings in his past two outings. He's 1-2 with a 5.17 ERA in seven career appearances against the Mariners, including five starts. He took a no-decision on Aug. 12 against Seattle, allowing four runs on six hits over five innings with four walks and four strikeouts."Overall, I need to do a better job preventing that crooked number," Lyles said after his most recent start in San Diego, a 14-4 loss Monday in which the Padres' Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a grand slam with a 3-0 count and a seven-run lead in the eighth inning, breaking one of baseball's unwritten rules. "I've got to stop putting our team in a bad spot." Rangers left-hander Kolby Allard did that Friday night in the series opener, unable to make it out of the first inning of a 7-4 defeat, Texas' sixth loss in a row."In the last little while, it's like we just cannot stop the bleeding," Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. "We keep giving up hits, keep giving up hits. We have to get guys out of the game. We were in a bind right there, getting into the bullpen in the first inning, that's never a good thing." Rangers outfielder/designated hitter Shin-Soo Choo is expected to miss a few games with 'mainly a calf issue,'" Woodward said. "He's just kind of banged up for a bit." --Field Level Media
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