Night of opposites for Hamels vs. Mariners

ARLINGTON -- Through the first three innings of left-hander Cole Hamels' outing in the Rangers' 8-7 win over the Mariners on Tuesday night at Globe Life Park, he looked like the pitcher who entered the game owning the lowest ERA in the American League.
Hamels retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced in those frames. But 10 of the next 14 Mariners reached base against Hamels, walking four times and recording six singles to score six runs and end his night after 4 1/3 innings.
"It's kind of foreign when you can look at the first three innings and then look at the last two and they look completely opposite," Hamels said. "Almost as though there's two different pitchers in the game."
Hamels' troubles began in the fourth when he allowed singles to Ketel Marte and Robinson Canó to lead off the inning and then walked Franklin Gutierrez to load the bases. Kyle Seager drew a bases-loaded walk, and then after Hamels got two outs without allowing a run to score, he walked Mike Zunino to let another run in. Coming into Tuesday, Hamels had just six bases-loaded walks in his career.
"We're pretty good athletes and we try to power through things," Hamels said. "But sometimes we need to slow down. That was probably a case where I should've slowed down the game -- the situation -- and try to identify what I was not doing very well and try to gather my focus a little better."
Rangers manager Jeff Banister agreed with Hamels' assessment.
"Cole was fighting himself and not getting the ball where he wanted it," Banister said. "PItchers have those kind of nights. It just wasn't his night."
Jonathan Lucroy was catching Hamels for just the sixth time since being acquired from the Brewers. But he was able to tell something was off.
"It was a hard night pitching-wise for us," Lucroy said. "They weren't really chasing anything. We had some walks that got us into trouble. Cole was definitely not himself. We had to put together some good at-bats. Tough night early on, but that kind of makes [the walk-off win] all worth it."