9/18/25

(Kansas City, MO) With the 10-game winning streak over, the Seattle Mariners would need to quickly hit the reset button for the rubber game of their three-game series with the Kansas City Royals. Without much rest, the M’s needed to ignore the fact that they now trail the Houston Astros by half of a game and that huge three-game series looming large. A win would make the M’s and Astros tied to begin that series but a loss would put added pressure on Seattle going to Houston.

In the finale, Seattle would have veteran Luis Castillo on the mound as the veteran would try to have another outing like he did in Atlanta. Always solid at home, Castillo has had a lot of trouble away from T-Mobile Park this season. For Kansas City, it would be one of their deadline acquisitions on the mound in Stephen Kolek. Seattle had a lot of success against Kolek when they faced him in San Diego in May but the young right-hander has taken his game to another level since becoming a Royal.

Mariners 2, Royals 0 (Game Three)

Both Kolek and Castillo got off to strong starts with clean innings in the 1st. Seattle would get the game’s first baserunner in the top of the 2nd on a first-pitch single by Josh Naylor. That brought Jorge Polanco to the plate and after his streak of seven games in a row with a double came to an end in Kansas City, he was due for another. Polanco drove a slider at the bottom of the zone to the gap in right center. The ball got to the wall, allowing Naylor to score from first on Polanco’s 29th double of the season. Despite being erased on a line drive, double play, Polanco did his part to give Seattle a 1-0 lead.

Luis Castillo would hit his first bump in the road in the bottom half of the 2nd. A one-out single by Salvador Perez put a man on and Adam Frazier followed with an infield hit of his own. With two on and one out, Castillo was looking for a double play but instead got Jac Caglianone to pop out to Leo Rivas for a big second out. He would then strikeout Carter Jensen to escape trouble with no damage. However his pitch count was climbing and he was at 40 pitches with no off day before Houston.

After that both starters were completely dominant. Luis Castillo settled in pitch count wise and only allowed two more baserunners for the rest of his outing. After having such a nightmare of a season on the road, Castillo has put together two really good starts away from T-Mobile Park down the stretch. Castillo ended up going six scoreless innings, allowing three hits and no walks with three punchouts and saving the bullpen quite a bit.

Stephen Kolek’s pitch count was just fine and he rolled into the 8th inning. After getting the first out, Kolek looked to continue his dominance with a groundout by Dominic Canzone to second base. However, Seattle would challenge that Michael Massey did not have both feet on the dirt when the pitch was delivered which is required by rule with the banning of the shift. They would win the challenge which allowed Canzone to reach first base and end Kolek’s day with just two hits allowed and one walk. Victor Robles ran for Canzone but remained at first with two outs. J.P. Crawford then got to a sinker in off the plate and just kept it fair down the right field line and into the corner. Robles flew around the bases and scored from first as Crawford pulled into second with his 24th double of the season. The big challenge paid off as Seattle extended their lead to 2-0.

Eduard Bazardo had spun a clean 7th inning and despite Gabe Speier giving up a single to Jac Caglianone, he rolled through the 8th to keep it 2-0. Andrés Muñoz entered the game for the first time in the series and looked refreshed with a quick strikeout of Bobby Witt Jr. Things then took a turn as Vinnie Pasquantino hit his 28th double of the year to bring the tying run to the plate. Maikel Garcia couldn’t turn that into a rally as he struck out for the second out. Muñoz wasn’t out of trouble with Salvador Perez coming to the plate, but a 1-0 pitch hit the future Hall of Famer to take the bat out of his hands but also put the tying run on and the go-ahead run came to the plate. Adam Frazier hit the big go-ahead home run the night before but couldn’t come through this time as he went down on strikes to close the show. Seattle would wrap up the series with a 2-0 win to set the table for a massive weekend.

Notable Performances

Mariners

Royals

• Stephen Kolek (L, 5-6)- 7.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO
• Vinnie Pasquantino- 1-4, 2B
• Salvador Perez- 1-3, HBP

What’s Next

Seattle (84-69) makes it four consecutive series wins and have now set the table for the biggest series for the Mariners since the early 2000s. They move into a tie with the Houston Astros (84-69) atop the AL West as the two teams meet for the final time in the regular season this weekend. Coupled with Boston’s loss to the A’s on Thursday afternoon, Seattle and Houston are also tied for the second Wild Card with the Yankees scheduled to play in Baltimore later in the day. Detroit also lost to Cleveland so if the Yankees lose in their game, Seattle will be a game behind both Detroit and New York for seeding as well.

None of the Wild Card talk matters right now. The Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros will likely decide the AL West winner this weekend and that is all that matters before the final week of the regular season. The two teams have split the regular season matchup 5-5 so the winner of the series will also own the tiebreaker which could come into play. Houston won three out of four when the two squared off at Daikin Park back in May. Seattle has not won an AL West title since their 116-win season in 2001 while the Astros have dominated the division for the last decade. To be the man you have to beat the man and the Mariners have a chance to do just that this weekend.

It looks like Seattle will avoid seeing Yordan Alvarez who injured his ankle this week against the Texas Rangers. Isaac Paredes could return for the series and play DH after injuring his hamstring in Seattle in the first series after the All-Star Break. The pitching matchups line up just as they would for the postseason. Hunter Brown will take the ball in the opener and he has had mixed results against Seattle this season, dominating them in an Astros loss and getting rocked by the M’s in a Houston win. Framber Valdez goes in game two and he has neutralized the M’s in two starts this season, going 12 innings and allowing just one run on six hits with five walks and 13 strikeouts. If Seattle gets to him, he can unravel quickly. Jason Alexander goes in the finale on Sunday Night Baseball and he has stacked quality starts after being acquired by Houston from the A’s earlier this season. It will be his first career appearance against the M’s.

Seattle will counter with their top three guys as well with the bats red hot and healthy coming in. Bryan Woo will start the series and looks to avenge his previous two starts against the Astros this season which have been two of his worst starts of his career-year. George Kirby goes in game two and he was also shelled by Houston in his first start off the season off the IL in May. He is on a nice run with 14 strikeouts in his last time out against the Angels and has a 2.44 career ERA against the Astros. In the finale, it will be Logan Gilbert who led the Mariners to a win when he faced Houston in April. Gilbert has struggled going deep in games this season but also has nice numbers against Houston in his career with a 3.44 ERA.

Pitching will decide this series. Both teams will hit and both will play solid defense. Jeremy Peña is back for Houston while Victor Robles will face the Astros for the first time this season as the spark plug of the M’s. Two young stars will have an impact as Houston’s Zach Cole looks to continue his blazing start to his MLB career while Dominic Canzone will look to remain scorching hot for the M’s. The big names will also show up as Houston needs Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa while the M’s look to Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez in this series. Houston is without Josh Hader who remains on the IL but Seattle will need more consistency from Matt Brash and Andrés Muñoz in the back end of their bullpen. Jorge Polanco, Randy Arozarena, Josh Naylor, and Eugenio Suárez square off with Christian Walker, Taylor Trammell, Yainer Diaz, and Jake Meyers. Playoff baseball is here. Soak it in Seattle.

• Game 1, Friday 5:100pm- Bryan Woo (14-7, 3.02 ERA) vs. Hunter Brown (12-7, 2.27 ERA)
• Game 2, Saturday 4:10pm- George Kirby (9-7, 4.46 ERA) vs. Framber Valdez (12-10, 3.59 ERA)
• Game 3, Sunday 4:10pm (ESPN)- Logan Gilbert (5-6, 3.53 ERA) vs. Jason Alexander (4-1, 4.04 ERA)

elisportsnetwork.com