Leading 3-0 with only 11:25 left, the Colorado Avalanche

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Yu Darvish did his part in the first of six straight games at home for the Texas Rangers against the two teams chasing them in the AL West.Now its Cole Hamels turn.Darvish struck out nine in 6 2/3 innings and Carlos Beltran homered among three hits, helping the Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners 6-3 on Monday night.The American League-leading Rangers dropped the Mariners into third place, a game behind Houston and 9 1/2 back of Texas.For the ninth straight time since the All-Star break, the lefty Hamels will follow Darvish in the rotation Tuesday night. The Rangers are 11-6 in those starts with five straight wins.I think its huge to have your one and two going back-to-back, manager Jeff Banister said. Yu set the table tonight with what he was capable of doing, really keeping their hitters off balance. Its a big plus to have those two guys at the front of the rotation for us.Darvish (5-3) easily outpitched fellow Japanese right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma for his third straight win, leaving to a standing ovation with a 6-1 lead in the seventh after throwing 110 pitches, the most since his return from Tommy John surgery.The Mariners tagged Darvish for two runs on Franklin Gutierrezs double off reliever Jake Diekman before Keone Kela struck out Nelson Cruz as the potential tying run.Sam Dyson struck out two in a perfect ninth for his 30th save, giving Texas 13 strikeouts.Seattle has lost six of seven and been held to one or no runs by CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka of the Yankees and Carlos Rodon of the White Sox. The lone win in that stretch -- a 3-1 victory -- came despite 14 strikeouts from Chicago ace Chris Sale, and thanks to Mariners ace Felix Hernandez.Its very good pitching. What are you going to say? Seattle manager Scott Servais said. When you catch the guys how were catching the rotations right now, its just where were at. Weve just got to continue to grind and hang in there.Beltran had a solo homer in the first and a double that was one of three straight run-scoring extra-base hits in a four-run third against Iwakuma (14-10), who lost his third straight start while matching his shortest outing of the season at three innings.Iwakuma allowed a season-high five runs for the fourth time.Two days removed from ending a career-worst 0-for-32 skid, Beltran had at least three hits for the first time since getting four against Oakland on Aug. 16, the day before the slump started.It was the third time Darvish and Iwakuma have faced each other in the majors, and Darvish has two wins. The Rangers have won his last five starts after losing the previous five straight.WHICH WAYS UP?Adrian Beltre jokingly turned his helmet backward as he came to the plate to face ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte in the fifth, drawing a big grin from the Seattle reliever, who said Beltre did the same thing when they faced each other for the first time last year. It must work for Beltre. The 37-year-old doubled against Venditte, just as he did last year. I think hes just trying to get some laughs, Venditte said.SHORT HOPSSeattle center fielder Leonys Martin, playing in his old home park, took a home run away from Ian Desmond with a leaping catch above the wall in right-center in the seventh. ... Carlos Gomez struck out three times and is 0 for 18 with 10 strikeouts since homering in his first at-bat for Texas. ... Mike Zunino had four strikeouts, three against Darvish. ... The Rangers released OF Drew Stubbs, who rejected an assignment to Triple-A Round Rock.TRAINERS ROOMRangers: The scheduled rehab start for RHP Colby Lewis (right lat muscle strain) with Double-A Frisco at Midland was rained out. He is likely to start Tuesday night in Frisco.UP NEXTMariners: LHP James Paxton (4-5, 3.63 ERA) makes his second start since returning from a left elbow injury after getting struck by a line drive.Rangers: LHP Hamels (14-4, 2.67) is tied with Tampa Bays Jake Odorizzi for the lowest ERA among AL starters since the All-Star break at 1.59. Authentic Custom Packers Jersey .Y. - New York City has been selected to host the NBA All-Star weekend in 2015, with the game played at Madison Square Garden and the slam dunk contest and other skills events held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Cheap Custom Packers Jersey . Its an influence in football and a big part of the game. http://www.custompackersjersey.com/ .Y. -- Leading 3-0 with only 11:25 left, the Colorado Avalanche committed a seemingly meaningless penalty to give the New York Islanders a power play. Wholesale Custom Packers Shirts . PAUL, Minn. Cheap Packers Jerseys . -- Hunter Smith scored the winner with just 12 seconds remaining in the third period as the Oshawa Generals edged the host Sarnia Sting 5-4 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League action. Jockey Brenton Avdulla is counting himself lucky having been cleared of any fractures to his right knee after being kicked by a horse in the barriers at Rosehill.Godolphin mare Cottage reared up and then came down, kicking out and landing a blow on Avdulla and also on race favourite Dagny on Saturday.Dagny was also scratched from the race while Avdulla was attended to on the track before later going to hospital for scans which revealed ligament damage.Cleared of any breaks, Avdulla tweeted.Physio on monday and that wwill tell me more! Very lucky.ddddddddddddAvdulla is leading both the Sydney and NSW premierships by one win from Tim Clark.Fellow riders Jason Collett and Taylor Marshall are expected to be out for six weeks and two months respectively following barrier incidents at Canterbury last Friday week.Collett has a broken bone in his foot while apprentice Marshall has shoulder and wrist injuries, ' ' '