Thoughts on a 3-1 Rangers loss

Mariners 3, Rangers 1

• When Felix Hernandez pitches like he did tonight, its going to be really hard for any team to beat him.  The good thing is that the Rangers made him throw a lot of pitches, so he only got to go 7.  Unfortunately, Texas couldn't do anything with Danny Farquhar or Fernando Rodney, either.
• Colby Lewis scuffled, to put it mildly.  He only allowed 3 runs in 5.2 IP, but he allowed hits or walks to 12 out of 26 batters he faced, and was fortunate that the M's ran into three outs on the basepaths.  I was surprised that Jeff Banister sent him back out for the sixth inning, with an 8 man bullpen, an off day this past Thursday, and off days next Monday and Thursday, but he did, and Colby ended up giving up a run to make it 3-1 before being pulled for Roman Mendez.
• Mendez looked like he was going to make things worse, hitting the first batter he faced, Mike Zunino, and then walking Austin Jackson to load the bases with two outs.  But Mendez fanned Dustin Ackley to get out of the inning, then struck out Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz in the 7th before getting Kyle Seager to pop out to end the inning.
• Keone Kela pitched the 8th, in what I'm sure was a big moment for him, having graduated from high school in Seattle.  He allowed a single and a stolen base to Logan Morrison, but struck out the first and last batters he faced in his scoreless inning of work.
• One of the baserunners thrown out was Austin Jackson, in the first inning, on a terrific Carlos Peguero to Rougned Odor to Robinson Chirinos sequence after a Cano double.  Peguero showed off his arm a couple of other times, leading me to wonder if someone from his old organization criticized it at one point, or something.
• The bats did nothing of note tonight.  Two hits -- both by Leonys Martin -- two HBPs, and two walks.  Bleah.
• It is worth noting, though, that Shin-Soo Choo continues to get killed on the lefty strike.  Tonight, he drew what appeared to be a walk on a clearly outside 3-1 pitch, only to have it called a strike, and end up K'ing.  A lot of Choo's value comes from his plate discipline, but it seems like, since coming to Texas, he's been disproportionately victimized by calls on pitches out of the zone