SEATTLE – The Texas Rangers have twice removed opening day starters with no-hitters in progress. They once had an opening day starter go nine shutout innings and get no decision. In their first opener, the starting pitcher didn't yield an earned run – and they still lost.

So it probably shouldn't be considered all that strange that Monday, in their 37th season opener, Rangers starter Kevin Millwood outpitched and outlasted one of the AL Cy Young Award favorites while refusing to yield an earned run.

And lost, too.

With the strange sight of snow falling outside Safeco Field's cover, Seattle beat the snow-blinded Rangers, 5-2, by taking advantage of poor fielding and the Rangers' inability to capitalize on Erick Bedard's shaky command.

As a result, Millwood joined former pitching coach Dick Bosman as the only Rangers opening day starters to not allow an earned run and still lose.

"It's just one of those openers where you kind of shake your head," Millwood said. "And then you come back and say 'Let's get 'em tomorrow.' "

There really wasn't much else Millwood could do. After being limited to five "A" game innings during the spring because of a hamstring strain, he gave the Rangers the kind of opening day performance they'd not seen in his first two seasons in Texas.

He worked quickly and efficiently through five innings while the Rangers clung to a 1-0 lead fashioned from Michael Young's first-inning homer off Bedard. It was Young's second hit in 18 career at-bats against Bedard. The Rangers made Bedard throw 106 pitches in five innings to force him out of the game. But they were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position in those five innings.

In the sixth, though, all the work the Rangers had done started to come apart. In the seventh, it unraveled.

Millwood nemesis Ichiro Suzuki, hitless in his first two at-bats, lined a ball to short. Young tried to field it on the short hop, but the ball went by his glove into left field. Young was charged with an error. With Ichiro on the move and Ian Kinsler rushing to cover second base, Jose Lopez squirted a ball slowly into the vacated area at second base for a hit. When Raul Ibanez followed with a legitimate single to right, the score was tied.

With one out and runners at first and third, Adrian Beltre hit a grounder toward third. Hank Blalock fielded it but had to cradle the ball to get a grip and needed to take an extra step before throwing to second. Beltre was just able to beat the relay to first to allow the go-ahead run to score.

"That extra shuffle was all the difference," Blalock said. "It's a play I need to make. That was a big momentum change in the game."

By the end of the seventh, though, it didn't really matter. Newly-signed reliever Kazuo Fukumori, appearing in his first major league game, retired just one of the five batters he faced, and Seattle scored three more times.

Fukumori allowed a pair of hits, walked two and mixed in two wild pitches, the second of which allowed a run to score.

It left Millwood a loser, but he can commiserate with president Nolan Ryan, the last Ranger to not allow an earned run in a season opener (in 1990). Ryan was pulled from that game with a no-hitter going because he reached his pitch count. It happened five years after Charlie Hough was pulled from an opening day no-hitter because of control problems.

"Kevin was in control of this game," Washington said. "He did what he had to do. It was a great job. We'll clean the physical errors up. Those happen. What can you do?"