5/30/24

(Seattle, WA) Since the start of 2023, the Seattle Mariners were 11-5 against the perennial AL West favorites in the Houston Astros. Despite missing the playoffs last year and Houston winning the division, the Mariners have seemed to turn things around against a team that has absolutely dominated the M’s over the last decade. The changing of the guard continued this week as the Astros came to Seattle for a four-game series against the AL West leading Mariners. A really slow start for Houston had been almost completely erased as the Astros had cut their deficit in the division down to 3 1/2 games. Seattle would make the most of their opportunity to create some breathing room as the Mariners continued to win home ballgames.

Mariners 3, Astros 2 (Game 1, May 27th)

Game one between the division rivals saw two pitchers that seem to see the opposing squad quite often as Framber Valdez took on Bryce Miller. For Miller, he had not won a game since April 17th while Valdez was trying to figure out a Mariners team that has given him issues his last few starts facing them.

It looked like the Mariners success against Valdez would continue right out of the gate. J.P. Crawford led off the bottom of the 1st with his third double of the season to immediately put a runner in scoring position. He remained there with one out but would move up to third on a single by Julio Rodríguez. Mitch Garver would then draw a walk to load the bases with one out for Cal Raleigh. The power hitting catcher sent a deep fly ball to center field, but a tremendous diving catch on the warning track by Jake Meyers took away extra bases for Raleigh. Crawford would score and Julio moved up to third with two outs. Ty France and Mitch Haniger would both come through with back-to-back two out RBI singles to score J-Rod and Garver respectively and give the M’s a 3-0 lead after just one inning.

Valdez settled down after that, but Bryce Miller was cruising against the Houston lineup through four hitless innings. In the top of the 5th the Texas native would then hit some bumps in the road. Back-to-back one out singles by Jake Meyers and Jon Singleton put runners on first and third for the former MVP José Abreu. In his first game since being recalled from Triple-A, Abreu laced an RBI single into right to get Houston on the board while Singleton moved up to third. Victor Caratini would then send a fly ball to right that was caught by Haniger, but allowed Singleton to score to make it 3-2. Jose Altuve doubled to left to put runners at second and third for Kyle Tucker. Fortunately, Miller would get the MVP candidate to groundout to Ty France to end the inning and preserve the 3-2 Seattle lead.

Both teams wasted scoring opportunities in the next few innings and the score remained 3-2 going into the 9th. Andrés Muñoz entered looking for his 11th save of the season and he continued to show that he is one of the best closers in all of baseball. After getting Jeremy Peña to strikeout for the fourth time to begin the inning, Muñoz would get the pesky Jake Meyers to fly out to right. A 2-2 slider to Jon Singleton would get the power hitter swinging to slam the door on the game and give the Mariners the 3-2 victory.

Notable Performances

Astros

• Jake Meyers- 2-4, R
• Victor Caratini- 1-2, RBI
• Framber Valdez (L, 3-3)- 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 4 SO

Mariners

• Julio Rodríguez- 2-4, 2 SB, R
• J.P. Crawford- 2-4, R
• Bryce Miller (W, 4-5)- 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 SO

Mariners 4, Astros 2 (Game 2, May 28th)

On Tuesday night in game two of the four-game set, Luis Castillo looked to continue to cut down on his ERA against a young pitcher with a ton of potential, but not such good results so far in Hunter Brown.

After La Piedra pitched a quick and clean top of the 1st, Seattle would again jump out to an early lead. Josh Rojas put himself into scoring position with a one-out single and a stolen base. Julio Rodríguez stayed hot with a grounder into right field for a base hit. Rojas scored easily to give the Mariners the first run of the game and a 1-0 lead.

Defense helped Castillo keep the Astros off the board in the top of the 2nd when Luke Raley robbed Jeremy Peña of a home run. Both Castillo and Brown would do the rest as the starters really dominated in their outings. Brown did not allow another run and only allowed one hit after the 1st inning. The young righty allowed just the one run on four hits with no walks and nine strikeouts in his six innings of work.

Luis Castillo would have his hiccup inning in the top of the 4th. A leadoff single by Yordan Alvarez would put a man on and with one out, Alex Bregman showed a flash of his MVP caliber that we have seen in years past. Bregman took a slider at the very bottom of the zone and sent it out into Edgar’s Cantina for a two-run shot and his fifth home run of the season. The big bomb flipped the script on the Mariners as they suddenly found themselves in a 2-1 hole.

A streak of 15 consecutive Mariners were retired as the game rolled into the bottom of the 8th with the score still 2-1. Houston set-up man Ryan Pressly would enter the game and immediately gave up a double to Mitch Haniger to start the inning. Jonatan Clase would run for Haniger and moved up to third on a wild pitch while Ryan Bliss drew a walk. After J.P. Crawford struck out swinging, Josh Rojas came to the plate with runners on the corners and one out. A hard grounder would just go off the glove of a diving José Abreu at first base and into right field. Clase scored to tie the game while Bliss moved to third and Rojas reached second with his seventh double of the season and the game was tied 2-2. Julio Rodríguez hit a soft grounder to third and Alex Bregman was going to have a tough play. Bregman looked home to see if he could get Bliss but that hesitation cost him. His ensuing throw to first got by Abreu and went into foul territory. Rojas would also score on the error as J-Rod moved up to second. The sudden explosion put the Mariners up 4-2 and they were three outs away from a third consecutive win.

With Andrés Muñoz getting a day off, former Astro Ryne Stanek came on to close things out in the 9th. Facing his former team, Stanek had some extra juice that pushed him to strikeouts of Alex Bregman and Jake Meyers to start the inning. For the second consecutive game, it would be Jon Singleton as the final out as he lifted a harmless fly ball to Luke Raley in left that was put away to give the Mariners another win over the Astros, this one by a final score of 4-2.

Notable Performances

Astros

• Alex Bregman- 2-4, HR, 2 RBI, R
• Yordan Alvarez- 2-4
• Hunter Brown (ND)- 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 9 SO

Mariners

• Josh Rojas- 2-4, 2B, RBI, 2 R, SB
• Julio Rodríguez- 2-4, 2 RBI
• Luis Castillo (ND)- 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO

Mariners 2, Astros 1 (10) (Game 3, May 29th)

Runs were going to be a rarity for both teams in game three of the series as George Kirby took the mound for Seattle against future Hall of Famer and now top 10 all time in career strikeouts in Justin Verlander. Seattle would actually come up with the first scoring opportunity in the bottom of the 2nd with singles by Ty France and Mitch Haniger putting two men on with one out. However, strikeouts would once again hurt the M’s as Verlander sat down Dominic Canzone and Mitch Garver to end the threat and keep things scoreless early.

Houston’s first scoring opportunity came in the top of the 4th. With Yordan Alvarez at first and two outs, Alex Bregman singled to center to extend the inning and bring Jake Meyers to the plate with runners on first and third. The center fielder came through for Houston with a base hit to center. Alvarez came in to score and Houston had the lead at 1-0.

Meanwhile, the Mariners continued to struggle mightily against Justin Verlander. With only two hits through four innings, it looked like that one run would be enough for the Astros. Dominic Canzone had other ideas. With nobody on and one out in the bottom of the 5th, Canzone got a fastball to hit at the top of the zone and he did not miss it. A long home run to right center was the fifth on the year for the young lefty and gave Seattle some life as they tied things up at 1-1.

Kirby and Verlander battled through a tricky inning each but other than that, the pitching matchup lived up to the hype. Verlander threw seven innings and gave up just the one run on three hits while walking one and striking out nine. Kirby on the other hand went six innings and allowed one run on six hits with no walks and eight strikeouts. Both pitchers would get no-decisions but started the strikeout fest that would take place in this game. By the time the game was over, a combined 29 batters would strikeout in this game.

A scoreless top of the 9th spun by Andrés Muñoz would give the Mariners an opportunity to walk it off in the bottom of the 9th against Josh Hader. J-Rod reached on a one-out single to put speed on base for the M’s. Julio would steal his 14th base of the season and the throw to second went into center field. That allowed Julio to move up to third with just one-out representing the winning run. Ty France would walk and Scott Servais made a questionable decision to pinch hit rookie Ryan Bliss for Josh Rojas to get a righty at the plate against the lefty. It didn’t work as Bliss struck out swinging. Mitch Haniger would follow suit and this game was headed to extra innings tied at 1-1.

New Mariner Mike Baumann did not care at all about Jon Singleton starting the inning at second. The veteran reliever needed just five pitches to retire Houston in order with Singleton never leaving second base. Again, Seattle had a chance to walk it off in the bottom of the 10th against Tayler Scott. Jonatan Clase entered the game to run for Mitch Haniger at second to begin the inning. He would move up to third on a groundout to second by Dominic Canzone and back-to-back walks by Cal Raleigh and Luke Raley loaded the bases for J.P. Crawford. After taking a fastball right down the middle for a first pitch strike, Crawford got another good pitch to hit with a changeup just a little bit below the belt. J.P. sent a deep fly ball down into the right field corner, and although Kyle Tucker ran it down he had no shot to get Clase at home. The rookie scored as Crawford was swarmed at first as the Mariners celebrated a series win with a 2-1 walk-off victory.

Notable Performances

Astros

• Justin Verlander (ND)- 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 SO
• Jake Meyers- 1-4, RBI, SB
• Yordan Alvarez- 2-4, R, SB

Mariners

• George Kirby (ND)- 6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 SO
• Dominic Canzone- 1-4, HR, RBI, R
• J.P. Crawford- 0-4, RBI, Walk-Off Sacrifice Fly

Astros 4, Mariners 0 (Game 4, May 30th)

Some day baseball in the finale of the four-game series saw Logan Gilbert take on Spencer Arrighetti as the Mariners looked to complete a sweep of their division rival. While the sun was out, the Mariners offense was still nowhere to be found.

The young Arrighetti and Gilbert both were in cruise control through the first three innings. A single in the top of the 4th by Kyle Tucker seemed to be harmless enough as Gilbert followed that up by retiring Yordan Alvarez and Jeremy Peña. Alex Bregman again made his mark on this game. The third baseman chased a splitter below the zone and golfed it out and over the left field wall for a two-run shot. Bregman’s sixth home run of the season and second of the series put Houston out in front 2-0.

Victor Caratini would get in on the fun with his third home run of the season to begin the 5th, making it 3-0. An inning later, Caratini drove in another run with an RBI groundout to make it 4-0. That was more than enough for Spencer Arrighetti as the young prized prospect was dominant on Thursday afternoon. The young righty gave up just two hits over six scoreless innings and allowed only three walks with eight strikeouts. While the ERA was high coming into the game, Arrighetti has been really good as of late and as with many pitchers this year, can use this outing against the Mariners to boost his confidence even more as we get into June.

Outside of a tremendous defensive play by J.P. Crawford, Dylan Moore, and Ty France, there wasn’t much to cheer about for Mariner fans as the game entered the bottom of the 9th still 4-0. Facing Josh Hader for a second consecutive night, Julio Rodríguez singled off of the lefty again to start the inning. After Cal Raleigh struck out for the first out, Ty France recorded his second hit of the game with another single. Hader settled in after that and struck out Dominic Canzone before getting Mitch Haniger to groundout to second. While Seattle did take the four-game series, the Mariners couldn’t complete the sweep as they dropped the finale to Houston 4-0.

Notable Performances

Astros

• Spencer Arrighetti (W, 3-5)- 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 8 SO
• Alex Bregman- 2-4, 3B, HR, 2 RBI, 2 R
• Victor Caratini- 1-4, HR, 2 RBI, R

Mariners

• Logan Gilbert (L, 3-3)- 6 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 SO
• Ty France- 2-4

What’s Next

With a big series win, Seattle (31-27) distanced themselves from the third place Houston Astros who are now 5 1/2 games behind the Mariners. However, Seattle’s division lead over Texas remains the same as the Mariners sit three games ahead of the Rangers who swept a two-game series with Arizona. The Mariners will now wrap up their seven-game homestand with a three-game series against the only AL West rival that they have not seen yet this season in the Los Angeles Angels. The Angels (21-35) have had yet another bumpy season in their first year post-Ohtani under new but familiar manager Ron Washington. With Mike Trout out with another injury, Los Angeles has struggled to find the offense and the pitching has struggled as well. Despite dropping the series, the Angels are coming off a pretty good series with the Yankees where Angel pitching kept them in all three games with the top team in the American League. Game one will be exclusively on Apple TV+ on Friday at 7:10pm while Saturday’s game at 4:15pm can be seen exclusively on Fox.

• Game 1, Friday 7:10pm (Apple TV+)- Jose Soriano (2-5, 3.61 ERA) vs. Bryan Woo (2-0, 1.66 ERA)
• Game 2, Saturday 4:15pm (Fox)- Reid Detmers (3-5, 5.76 ERA) vs. Bryce Miller (4-5, 3.48 ERA)
• Game 3, Sunday 1:10pm- Griffin Canning (2-4, 5.08 ERA) vs. Luis Castillo (4-6, 3.28 ERA)

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