ARLINGTON -- Don’t try telling Marco Gonzales that he looked much sharper Wednesday with seven strong innings in the Mariners’ 2-1 loss to the Rangers. The lefty wasn’t settling for consolation prizes as Seattle’s struggles continued in a series sweep at the hands of its American League West rival.

“It doesn’t matter when you lose,” Gonzales said. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not OK with it. It’s hard to be OK when we lose, bottom line.”

• Box score

The three-game sweep dropped the Mariners to 23-29 and into last place in the AL West as they head to Oakland to face an A’s team that has won six straight. Seattle has gone 10-27 since opening the year at 13-2, while Texas has moved into second in the division, at 24-23, by winning seven of its last eight.

Gonzales gave up just two runs on seven hits over seven innings and one of those was an unearned tally after a costly first-inning error by Edwin Encarnacion, but the 27-year-old lefty took his fourth loss in his past five starts, falling to 5-4 with a 3.41 ERA.

After going 5-0 with a 2.80 ERA over seven starts in March/April, Gonzales is 0-4 with a 4.56 ERA in five May outings after his 81-pitch performance against the Rangers on a muggy 86-degree afternoon.

“Marco threw the ball really well,” said Mariners manager Scott Servais. “He got in a nice groove there from the third inning on. He started to find his release point and had all his pitches working today. He certainly had some nice double plays behind him that helped get him deep in the ballgame. It was tough conditions out there with the wind and everything else.”

Hunter Pence’s solo homer in the sixth off a 2-0 changeup proved the deciding blow, as Seattle countered with just a lone run and seven hits on a day that Texas rolled out an opener in Jesse Chavez for 1 2/3 innings and then got 5 1/3 strong frames from former Mariner Adrian Sampson.

No glove for you

While the Mariners' defense turned five double plays -- just one shy of the club record -- errors have been an issue all year for Seattle and a poor underhanded throw by Encarnacion cost it again in the first inning, setting up an unearned run that dropped Gonzales into an early hole.

The Mariners are 0-17 since April 17 in games when their opponent scores first, and they handed the Rangers the early lead with their 55th error of the season, with Encarnacion leading Gonzales too far on a toss to first base on a grounder by Pence.

Pence wound up scoring on Nomar Mazara’s double, the 46th unearned run given up by Seattle this season. The Dodgers had the second-most unearned runs allowed in the Majors going into Wednesday with 24.

“The unearned run has gotten us a few times this year,” Servais said. “Eddie made a good play gloving it, but the toss was a little ahead of Marco.”

A second error later in the game by left fielder Jay Bruce caused no damage, but the Mariners’ 56 miscues are easily the most in the Majors. The White Sox were second with 40 going into play Wednesday, while the MLB average per team stood at 28.

In the Mariners’ defense, they turned four double plays in the first five innings for Gonzales, including a slick glove flip by rookie second baseman Shed Long (who is filling in for the injured Dee Gordon) in the fourth. Utility man Dylan Moore also made several nice plays filling in at third for Ryon Healy, who also went on the 10-day injured list Tuesday.

Texas helped its cause with a couple defensive gems, including an excellent catch at the wall by Mazara in the fourth on a deep drive by Daniel Vogelbach.

Second baseman Rougned Odor turned a critical double play on a hard grounder up the middle by Moore to stunt a Seattle rally in the seventh after Bruce doubled and scored on J.P. Crawford’s base hit for the Mariners’ only run.

Welcome aboard, Mr. Bass

One of the Mariners' five double plays came on the first pitch thrown by reliever Anthony Bass in his first appearance since signing Tuesday.

Bass replaced Jesse Biddle -- also making his first Seattle showing since being acquired by trade from the Braves on Monday -- with a runner on first, and he immediately induced a line drive by Pence that he gloved and flipped to first for the double play to end the eighth.

“I said when I handed the ball to Anthony, ‘We need a double play,’” Servais said. “And he threw one pitch and got it. Different than we drew it up, but we’ll take it.”

With Biddle and Bass both getting in the game, the Mariners have now used 45 players already this season, the most in the Majors and the second most in club history for a full season, only eight behind the record 53 used last year.