ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- While Freddy Garcia eased some fears, Chan Ho Park continues to raise some concerns
Garcia bounced back from a rough Opening Day outing to allow two runs in 6 1/3 innings, but Park was hammered yet again as the Seattle Mariners routed the Texas Rangers, 11-2, in the rubber game of a three-game series.
Garcia (1-1) allowed three hits and six walks. One of the hits was a home run by Hank Blalock, who has homered in three straight games, but Garcia struck out four and got all the key outs when he needed them.
"I've got to be right for the next start, too," Garcia said. "I had good location today, good concentration and I made good pitches when I needed them. I tried to keep the ball down today and when you can do that good things happen. I had great defense behind me today also."
"Freddy's stuff was really working today," Seattle manager Bob Melvin said. "To hold a team like that to three hits was really good."
Shigetoshi Hasegawa continued to be solid in relief for Seattle, allowing a hit over 2 2/3 scoreless innings.
Seattle scored in all but three inning and broke open the game with five runs in the seventh, highlighted by a three-run double by John Mabry. Each of the first four hitters in the Mariners' lineup had multi-hit games with cleanup hitter John Olerud driving in a pair of runs.
Edgar Martinez, who had two hits - including a homer - and scored twice, left the game for a pinch runner in the sixth. Martinez, who beat out an infield hit in the sixth, suffered a strained left hamstring on the play and is expected to be sidelined three to five days.
"Edgar's injury puts a damper on this day," Melvin said. "I sure would have loved to see him in the (home) opener."
Park (0-2) surrendered four runs and five hits in three-plus innings. He walked three and the Rangers have been outscored 14-0 this season while he is on the mound.
"I thought Chan Ho was more aggressive today, he just couldn't get anything going," Rangers manager Buck Showalter said. "It was a little better today and hopefully it will continue to get better. I thought he was a lot more competitive but he still had some mechanical problems."
Showalter did admit that the results still are not there.
"Certainly, we'd like to see a little more productivity but no one wants that more than he does," Showalter conceded. "It's not a lack of effort but the results haven't been there so far."
"I felt great today," Park said. "I'll just keep going out and battling. Like today, I never gave up. I just tried to make better pitches."
Park struck out the first two batters of the game before surrendering Martinez's second homer of the season. Seattle pushed across a run in the second inning on an RBI single by Dan Wilson, who was activated from the disabled list before the game.
Mike Cameron was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the third and Carlos Guillen made it 4-0 with a sacrifice fly later in the inning.
"I really paid for a couple of bad pitches I made," Park said. "Especially the one to Martinez - it was a hanging curveball. The hit by pitch against Cameron cost me a run too. The key is command -- throwing my fastball for strikes. It will come."
Texas scored single runs in the fourth and fifth but Seattle countered with a run in the sixth on a single by Randy Winn that scored Wilson.
Any hope the Rangers had of rallying evaporated when the Mariners scored five times in the seventh. Guillen had a long RBI double, Mabry delivered his three-run double and Olerud had a single to right for a 10-2 cushion.
Olerud's two-out RBi single in the ninth capped the scoring.
