7/7/23

Mariners 10, Astros 1

(Houston, TX) Sometimes in baseball it isn’t about who you play. It’s about when you play them. Right now is the best time to play the Houston Astros with their lineup so injured which gave the Seattle Mariners a massive opportunity against a team that has had their number for many years. The M’s have taken advantage of the timing and continued to do that in game two on Friday night. Thanks to the Mariners massive 4th inning and Luis Castillo’s dominance on the mound, Seattle cruised to a game two win in blowout fashion by a final score of 10-1.

Seattle’s ace did not have his best stuff and it was apparent early in the ball game. Luis Castillo was not bad at all but he did not have his swing and miss stuff. Because of that, the defense needed to be on their game and for the second consecutive game, the defense was tremendous. The middle infield duo of J.P. Crawford and Kolten Wong were phenomenal especially early on as they recorded five of the first six outs for the Mariners. Eugenio Suarez and Ty France were also very strong defensively throughout the game and that set the tone once again.

In the bottom of the 3rd, Houston capitalized on some missed opportunities for the Mariners to take an early lead. Chas McCormick’s 10th double of the season gave Houston their first opportunity with a runner in scoring position. With two outs, Kolten Wong would have one slip up and committed an error to extend the inning with runners on the corners. Alex Bregman looked like he would have a double as he smashed one down the third base line. Eugenio Suarez made a tremendous diving stop but was unable to get the throw to first in time as Bregman reached on an RBI infield single to give Houston a 1-0 lead.

Shortly after that, the game got ugly in a very good way for the Mariners. In the top of the 4th, the Seattle offense got to rookie Hunter Brown. A single by Jarred Kelenic began the inning and Mike Ford reached on a walk to get something going. Kolten Wong made up for the error in the previous inning with a base hit the other way into left field. Kelenic score from second to get Seattle on the board and tying the game 1-1. The lineup turned over and J.P. Crawford continued the hit parade with a single to load the bases. Julio Rodriguez took advantage of a mistake by Brown and didn’t try to do too much with a fastball in the middle of the plate. A hard grounder into right field was good enough for the Mariners as Ford trotted home and was followed by Wong to give Seattle their first lead of the day at 3-1. That would end the day for the Houston starter but the threat was not done as Seattle still had runners on first and second with nobody out.

The scoring was not done either for Seattle in the top of the 4th. Facing reliever Phil Maton, Teoscar Hernandez followed a Ty France strikeout with a walk to reload the bases with one out. Cal Raleigh hit a grounder that looked like it could be a tough double play and Houston would settle for just getting Teo at second for an out while Raleigh beat out the throw to first, allowing Crawford to score and extending the lead to 4-1. Eugenio Suarez was then hit by a pitch to load the bases and Jarred Kelenic reached base for the second time in the inning with a walk to score another run, making it 5-1. Mike Ford then made things real ugly. Ford crushed a hanging curveball over the head of right fielder Kyle Tucker. Everyone would score as Ford pulled into second with a bases clearing double to blow things open and make it 8-1 Seattle. Ford would then score as well as Kolten Wong smoked a double into the right field corner. Wong tried to extend it to a triple but was thrown out at third to end the inning. The damage was done however as Seattle scored nine runs in the inning on six hits and sent 12 batters to the plate to take a commanding 9-1 lead.

With a massive lead, Luis Castillo had all the pressure taken off of him and he just had to go out and throw strikes. That’s exactly what La Piedra did. Normally a strikeout pitcher, Castillo only recorded three but kept Houston at bay through seven strong innings. A pitcher who has not always gotten much run support this season, Luis Castillo took advantage of hit throughout his seven innings as he just allowed five hits and one unearned run without allowing a walk. Defense was the story for both Kirby and Castillo in the first two game of the series as the offense continued to fire on all cylinders.

As Houston began to sub out most of their starters, the writing was on the wall that the Mariners were going to be able to cruise to a win. Seattle would sub out J.P. Crawford and Teoscar Hernandez as well as Isaiah Campbell made his major league debut on the mound for the M’s and pitched a quick and clean bottom of the 8th. Position player Bligh Madris pitched for the Astros in the top of the 9th and Mike Ford added on to his very big day and big week. Ford launched a sky-high solo home run for his eighth bomb of the season to extend the lead to 10-1 going into the bottom of the 9th.

Tayler Saucedo was tasked with getting the final three outs of the game. It didn’t start off great for Saucedo as David Hensley crushed a flyball to deep center field. Julio Rodriguez bailed out the Mariner lefty as he leapt into the wall to make the catch for a long and loud first out. Saucedo settled in after that and got both Jeremy Peña and Yainer Diaz to groundout to end the ballgame. The dance party was then on as Seattle celebrated a blowout win over the Houston Astros by a final score of 10-1.

A chance to win the four-game series is up for grabs for the Seattle Mariners (44-43) in game three with the Houston Astros (49-40) on Saturday at 4:15pm on FOX. Bryan Woo (1-1, 4.08 ERA) will get his first taste of the bitter rivalry between the M’s and Astros when he gets the start in game three. Woo was fantastic in his last start near his hometown in San Francisco as Woo registered the best start of his rookie season. Houston will give the ball to their ace Framber Valdes (7-6, 2.49 ERA) who was skipped in the last turn around the rotation after dealing with a minor ankle injury.

Notable Performances

Mariners

• Mike Ford- 3-4, 2B, HR, 4 RBI, 3 R, 2 BB
• Kolten Wong- 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI, R, 2 BB
• Luis Castillo (W, 6-6)- 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO

Astros

• Alex Bregman- 1-3, RBI
• Chas McCormick- 1-3, 2B, R
• Hunter Brown (L, 6-6)- 3 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 8 SO

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