ARLINGTON -- He got the message.

Slapped across the cheek for the second of two egregious base-running mistakes in the seventh, Rougned Odor responded the way he seemingly always does: slugging something.

In this case, what he slugged was a fastball from Edwin Diaz. Odor drove it 413 feet to straightaway center to score Adrian Beltre and give the Rangers an 8-7 walkoff win over Seattle on Tuesday. The Rangers have made a habit out of these kinds of wins this season. They now have six walkoffs and 30 one-run wins.

The standings-related repercussions were these: Seattle is now 10 1/2 games back in the division and will leave town in third place. The Rangers have padded their lead on the Mariners by five games in the last week. It means this weekend's series with Houston becomes the showdown between Nos. 1 and 2 in the AL West. The Astros, who have won nine of their last 11, are 8 1/2 games back.

The longer-term repercussions for the Rangers: It provided Beltre with an opportunity to do a bit of teaching to Odor.

"Adrian is the wealth of experience," manager Jeff Banister said. "How he communicates with those young guys, how he's able to translate the information, and for a guy like [Odor] to go ahead and put some of those things in play -- it's invaluable to this club, to these guys. They're learning from a guy that has done just about all there is to do in the game."

Here is how Beltre taught: After Odor ran himself into a key second out by unwisely trying to stretch a single into a double, Beltre, who represented the tying run, glared from third toward the dugout like a disappointed dad. When he scored the tying run anyway on a two-out single by Jonathan Lucroy, Beltre came back to the dugout and semi-seriously smacked Odor across the cheek.

Odor, who lest we forget all but knocked Jose Bautista out with one punch this season, looked like a scolded schoolboy.

Then they talked through the situation.

"He understood he was a little aggressive, that he was a little risky," Beltre said. "We are an aggressive team, but we just have to be smart. It was not a big deal."

Oh, but to Odor it was.

"I was too aggressive on the bases and it was not the right situation," Odor said. "Adrian talked to me, and he was telling me the situation and stuff like that. I just want to say thank you to him because he's a great teammate. He helped me a lot with everything. He teaches me the little things. This is a long season. We talk about those little things. He teaches me. And I appreciate that."

It also left Odor perhaps a little upset with himself.

Odor got the chance to atone in the ninth. Though they fell down 7-6 in the top of the eighth, the Rangers worked reliever Edwin Diaz hard in the bottom of the inning and drew a pair of two-out walks to extend his pitch count. The Mariners stuck with him in the ninth, and Beltre responded with a leadoff single.

Odor followed. It was a perfect opportunity to make amends. He fell behind 1-2 on three straight sliders, then took a fourth off the plate. Diaz chose to come back with the pitch Odor was looking for: a power fastball -- at 97 mph -- that was down but centered over the plate. It allowed Odor to get his arms extended and drive the ball to almost the exact spot that Beltre had homered earlier in the game.

Odor flipped the bat casually and broke into his edgy trot before being mobbed at home plate.

"He was pretty upset with himself about the mistake," Elvis Andrus said of Odor. "That's good, though. When he gets mad at himself, he plays better. Maybe we need to make him mad every day."

It certainly worked Tuesday.

Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant