SEATTLE -- Welcome back, Rangers offense. Texas forced a rubber match in this series and kept an 8-game lead in the AL West with an 11-6 victory over Seattle. Some quick thoughts (more to come in Ranger Reax):

* The Rangers offense woke up from a bit of a slumber with two-out hits. The Rangers scored 10 of their 11 runs with two outs. The biggest two-out blast was Michael Young's grand slam in the seventh inning. It happened after the speed of Elvis Andrus allowed the inning to continue. The Rangers got the inning going after two strikeouts with singles by Bengie Molina and Mitch Moreland. Andrus then hit a bouncer to third and beat out the throw to load the bases. That brought up Young who hit the grand slam to turn a 7-6 game into an 11-6 game.

* The Rangers took the lead thanks to five runs in the fifth, three of them scored with two outs. Vladimir Guerrero appeared to tie the game with a long fly ball over the fence in left-center, but Franklin Gutierrez made a phenomenal play to rob him of it. So with two outs, the Mariners walked Nelson Cruz intentionally to get to David Murphy, who slammed a three-run homer to right field (out of everyone's reach). That put the Rangers up 6-5. They added another run on Mitch Moreland's single. It was the first time the Rangers scored five runs in an inning since the fifth inning in Boston on July 16.

* C.J. Wilson lasted just three innings and threw 85 pitches. He didn't have his command, walking four, and had to try to grind through some long innings in giving up four runs. It's the second straight start that he's failed to go six innings and he's allowed seven combined runs in those 8 2/3 innings.

* It was a tough first inning for Wilson. He allowed a double to Chone Figgins and a walk to Casey Kotchman. Wilson then tried to pick Figgins off at second and threw the ball to center field, moving the runners over. A walk and a single later, it was 2-0 Mariners. Wilson ended up walking three in the inning and faced eight batters needing 39 pitches.

* Ichiro Suzuki sure can run. Despite a perfect throw by Bengie Molina at two separate points in the game, Ichiro stole second base. He did it once off Wilson and once off Scott Feldman.

* The Rangers offense generated something in the third inning. And they did it with two outs. Josh Hamilton hit a single to right and Vladimir Guerrero followed with a double down the line. Hamilton ran hard from first and as the ball bounced around in the left field corner, third base coach Dave Anderson sent Hamilton home and he scored easily. Guerrero then came around to score on Nelson Cruz's single. Guerrero made a nice slide, knocking the ball loose from the catcher to tie the score.

* Cristian Guzman got his first hit as a Ranger with a single in the fifth. That snapped an 0-for-24 streak and he had 12 of those at-bats with the Rangers since coming over in a deadline deal last week.

* The Rangers allowed a run in the sixth when Bengie Molina threw to second and it was a little high as Chone Figgins stole the bag. The ball got away from Guzman who was backing up Elvis Andrus on the throw and Figgins went to third. He scored on a sac fly to right field (and a nice catch by Nelson Cruz who had to cover a lot of ground).

* Scott Feldman came in and gave up one run on two hits in two innings of relief. But he looked better than he had in some of his recent starts. He could become an important middle reliever for this club.

* Frank Francisco continues to pitch well. He came in and got the final two outs in the eight via strikeouts and the final three in the ninth.