Instant replay and observations from the Rangers' 8-7 loss to Seattle on Sunday at Safeco Field:

What you need to know: The Sam Dyson Era as the Rangers' closer appears to have come to an end. For the second time this week, Dyson blew a save after the Rangers had led by as many as five runs. He is 0-3 with three blown saves. After blowing a five-run lead, the Rangers broke a tie in the top of the ninth with a Nomar Mazara home run. But Seattle loaded the bases on a chopped single, a bunt single and an intentional walk and then scored the tying run on a walk of Mitch Haniger. The winning run scored on Nelson Cruz's grounder up the middle that Elvis Andrus dove to stop but couldn't flip out of his glove to Rougned Odor.

Dude of the day: Shin-Soo Choo, dropped to the No. 7 spot against a right-handed pitcher for the first time this year, drove in five runs in his first two at-bats with a three-run homer and a two-out, two-run double. They were the first two extra-base hits of the season for Choo. Choo entered the game ranked last of 111 qualifying hitters in the AL in percentage of "hard-hit balls." A year ago, while limited to 48 games by injuries, Choo had just one game with multiple extra-base hits.

Rotation report: Cole Hamels was handed a 6-1 lead heading to the bottom of the third and barely made it through the fifth. He gave back three runs before getting an out in the bottom of the third. He hit Leonys Martin, allowed a chopped infield single to Guillermo Heredia and a majestic homer to Mitch Haniger. In the fifth, he walked Haniger with two outs and allowed a single to Robinson Cano before striking out Nelson Cruz to end the inning and his afternoon.

Did you know? With a seventh-inning single, Elvis Andrus tied Ruben Sierra for fifth place on the Rangers' all-time hit list. Both are at 1,281. It will be a while until he passes another guy. Juan Gonzalez is fourth at 1,595.

OTHER STUFF

Confused Bucknor: For the second time in the series, umpire C.B. Bucknor was at the center of a controversial call. With the tying run on second in the sixth inning, Seattle's Leonys Martin shattered his bat on a ball that spun down the first base line. Not until after the ball had hopped over the bag and Mike Napoli had fielded it and stepped on first did Bucknor call the ball dead and look to home plate umpire Mark Carlson for a call. Once the ball passes the bag, though, it becomes the base umpire's call. Napoli explained that to the umpire, who then reversed his call, ending the inning. It led to a long and animated discussion between Bucknor and Mariners manager Scott Servais and, eventually, to Servais' ejection. On Friday, Bucknor prematurely ruled a ball was a home run and was overruled on replay.

Pace yourself: Jeremy Jeffress came on to retire the last batter of the seventh inning Sunday. It was his eighth appearance in the Rangers' first 12 games. He is on a ridiculous 108-game appearance pace. The good news: he has not faced a heavy workload in most of those outings. He faced just one hitter Sunday and has only six innings of work in the eight outings. He has, however, pitched four times in the last six days.

The audition: Pitching for the first time in a week, Matt Bush threw 11 fastballs all at 97 or 98 mph in striking out the side in the eighth inning. Bush received a cortisone injection in his shoulder Tuesday to help relieve soreness in his AC Joint. If it was an audition to see how he might look as the Rangers' closer, it went quite well.

Stranded: The Rangers left six runners caught in the crossfire during the later stages of the game. They loaded the bases in both the seventh and eighth, but failed to produce runs either time. Rougned Odor flied out to deep right field to end the seventh. Elvis Andrus struck out to end the eighth.