9/19/25

(Houston, TX) At long last, the series that had been circled for months had arrived. On Friday night, the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros began their three-game series deadlocked atop the AL West. With the season series and head-to-head tiebreaker on the line, the series could not be any bigger as two teams with very different decades squared off. For Seattle, so many times they fell short and watched Houston celebrate AL West title after AL West title. To change the narrative they would have to take down the big bad Astros and it all started Friday night.

In the opener it would be ace vs. ace as Houston shuffled their rotation while things worked out perfectly for the Mariners. Bryan Woo would take the mound in game one for Seattle looking to figure out the Houston Astros who have given him fits this season. For the Astros, it would be Cy Young contender Hunter Brown who dominated the M’s once and only survived four innings against Seattle in his two starts against them in 2025.

Mariners 4, Astros 0 (Game One)

Hunter Brown looked good early, striking out Randy Arozarena quickly before getting Cal Raleigh to groundout. Julio Rodríguez would come to the plate and took two pitches to get ahead 2-0. Brown would run a sinker in on the chalk of the right-handed batters box and somehow Julio got the barrel to it. He crushed a no-doubter 366-feet into the Crawford Boxes to set the tone for the series. Three batters in and the Mariners had grabbed a 1-0 lead on J-Rod’s 31st of the season.

Bryan Woo was lights out from the very first pitch on. He was perfect the first time through the order with four strikeouts. He would get some help from his defense as Julio made a leaping catch against the wall to take extra bases from Jesús Sánchez before Eugenio Suárez made a barehanded play at third to get Jake Meyers. Seattle couldn’t add on and left two stranded in the 3rd but the 4th was a different story. Geno went down and got a knuckle curve at the bottom of the zone and obliterated it onto the train tracks high above Daikin Park. His 47th of the year came in a huge game as the M’s lead grew to 2-0.

Houston finally put some pressure on Bryan Woo in the bottom of the 4th. Carlos Correa ended a streak of 10-consecutive batters retired by Woo with his 27th double of the season. Isaac Paredes then drew a walk to put two on for the meat of the order. After hitting the reset button, Woo locked back in a struck out Jose Altuve and Zach Cole to slam the door on the threat. Unfortunately, Woo would not pitch into the 6th as he left the game while warming up with pec tightness, but he went five scoreless to keep the Seattle lead untouched.

Eduard Bazardo bailed out J.P. Crawford who made an error to hang up another zero in the 6th. Leading off the 7th, Victor Robles welcomed Enyel De Los Santos to the game emphatically. A slider hung right in the middle of the plate and Robles destroyed it into the Crawford Boxes for his first home run of the year. It was the third solo shot of the game by the M’s and extended their lead to 3-0.

Bazardo went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 7th for two really strong innings of relief. Houston kept moving through their bullpen with Craig Kimbrel on for the 8th. He got J-Rod to pop out before Josh Naylor came to the plate. A guy that Houston hadn’t faced as a Mariner, Naylor flexed his muscle and added one more for the Mariner offense. A changeup over the middle of the plate was deposited into the seats in right field for Naylor’s 20th home run of the season. A fourth solo home run added on as the Mariners were rolling with a 4-0 lead.

Matt Brash shook off a rough outing in Kansas City thanks to a double play erasing an error for a scoreless 8th inning. That would leave the 9th for Andrés Muñoz in a non-save situation. With this feeling like a playoff game, Dan Wilson gave his closer the ball and it paid off with a quick strikeout of Carlos Correa to start the inning. Isaac Paredes would single to the wall in left but needed a pinch runner as Taylor Trammell entered the game. It did not matter. Muñoz was dominant and got Altuve to pop-up to J.P. Crawford for the second out. The rookie Zach Cole didn’t fare any better, striking out on three pitches for an emphatic end to the game. Seattle dominated the opening game of the massive series with a 4-0, three-hit shutout of the Houston Astros.

Notable Performances

Mariners

Astros

• Hunter Brown (L, 12-8)- 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 SO
• Isaac Paredes- 1-3, BB
• Carlos Correa- 1-4, 2B

What’s Next

The series begins on a very high note for the Seattle Mariners (85-69) as they take a one-game lead over the Astros into the weekend. Elsewhere in baseball, Detroit fell to Atlanta 10-1 which moves the M’s into the #2 seed and a first-round bye as things currently stand. New York lost to Baltimore 4-2 while Boston eliminated Tampa Bay 11-7. Cleveland stayed hot with a 6-2 win in Minnesota while Texas lost a heartbreaker in 12 innings to Miami 6-4. Toronto is still the #1 seed despite a 20-1 loss to Kansas City and the Jays are four games ahead of both Seattle and Detroit. The Tigers hold the #3 seed and would host the #6 seed Astros while the #4 seed Yankees would host #5 Boston in the Wild Card series. New York sits two games ahead of both Boston and Houston while Cleveland is just 1 1/2 games behind both for a playoff spot. Texas and Kansas City are on the chopping block, five and seven games out respectively.

Game two will take place on Saturday at 4:10pm as Seattle gets two chances to win one game to take the season series and head into the final week of the season in sole possession of first place in the AL West. In the middle game, the M’s turn to George Kirby (9-7, 4.46 ERA) who has looked like his old self since the All-Star Break. Kirby was roughed up in Houston in his first start off the IL but has seven quality starts in 11 starts since the break. Left-hander Framber Valdez (12-10, 3.59 ERA) will go for Houston is a pressure packed game for the Astros. Valdez has had mixed results against the M’s in his career with a 3.22 ERA against them in his career. This season, Valdez has dominated Seattle in 12 innings allowing just one run and six hits.

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