Mariners falter in key, late-game situations to hand win to Astros
HOUSTON — In a place where it’s been so difficult to find success for the better part of the past four seasons, the Mariners gave away a victory and the chance to lock up a series win Saturday by allowing two things that absolutely shouldn’t happen to them in what would be a disappointing 3-2 loss to the Astros.
If they fall short of their postseason goals, this is one of a handful of losses that they will point to as games they had every reason to win and still found a way to give it away.
Those two things came in a seminal eighth inning.
The Mariners loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the eighth inning and failed to push across a run.
And in the bottom of the eighth, Andres Munoz gave up a solo homer to light-hitting catcher Martin Maldonado, who hadn’t had a hit in his past seven games, for the go-ahead run.
The Mariners can still win the four-game series in the finale on Sunday and head into the All-Star break on a positive note. Logan Gilbert will get the start for Seattle while righty Brandon Bielak will go for Houston.
“We had them against the ropes and couldn’t deliver the knockout punch,” manager Scott Servais said.
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No, they swung and missed literally and figuratively.
With the score tied 2-2, reliever Hector Neris hit Ty France with a pitch and walked Teoscar Hernandez and Eugenio Suarez to start the eighth. Since he started most of his right-handed-hitting bench players, Servais was eager to go to his hitters on the bench as pinch-hitters.
But Neris suddenly found a little bit of command. He came back to strike out pinch-hitter Cal Raleigh swinging after Raleigh fouled off a hittable first-pitch fastball. Using his sinking split-finger fastball to get ahead of pinch-hitter Mike Ford, Neris then used an elevated fastball to coax a pop out to first base. With two outs and the crowd of 37,112 standing and cheering in anticipation of a miraculous escape, Neris froze Jose Caballero for a called strike three to end the inning.
“We had really good at-bats against Neris to get the bases loaded,” Servais said. “We didn’t do any damage against him, but you take some walks and load the bases. You have a pitch to hit in those at-bats, but if you foul it off or you don’t get on it, then you’re really battling somebody whose offspeed stuff is tough to hit.”
Unable to forget past failures, Servais was thinking of more than just taking the lead.
“On the road, you’ve got to score and not just like get one in that inning,” he said. “In my mind, I’m hoping we get two or three when you get the bases loaded. Then you look up and he wiggled his way out of it. He made some pitches and we had a couple to hit, but we didn’t get them in play. It happens in this league. Unfortunately it’s happened to us a few times here recently, when you’re right there on the cusp of taking control of the game and we don’t do it.”
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Neris’ great escape led to Maldonado’s unexpected heroics. His last hit came on June 28. He was hitless in his last 21 plate appearances, reaching base just once on a walk.
With one out, Munoz left a 1-1 slider on the inside half and Maldonado turned on it, sending a fly ball into the Crawford Boxes in left field. The ball had an exit velocity of only 88 mph, but it traveled 371 feet per Statcast and would’ve been out of 15 of the 30 MLB parks.
It was a frustrating defeat for the Mariners, who squandered an outstanding outing from rookie Bryan Woo.
Woo pitched six innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits with a walk and four strikeouts.
“I thought Brian Woo was fantastic,” Servais said. “They put a couple of hits together in the first inning, but he did an awesome job after that.”
Both runs came in the first inning as Woo tried to settle into his outing, pitching in yet another new stadium and environment.
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With one out Jeremy Pena singled to center. Kyle Tucker followed with a double down the right-field line to score Pena. Dylan Moore’s throw in from right field didn’t reach its intended destination. France couldn’t grab it and it rolled toward the third-base dugout, forcing catcher Tom Murphy to chase it down and allowing Tucker to move up 90 feet. That loomed large when Tucker scored on Alex Bregman’s hard line drive that hit off the top of Suarez’s glove and into left field.
From there Woo allowed just one base runner, retiring 16 in a row after the Bregman single.
“Talking to Murph (catcher Tom Murphy) in between innings, he did a really good job of communicating,” Woo said. “He was saying and they were picking up some tendencies.”
The Mariners picked up two runs off Astros starter Framber Valdez, who hadn’t started since June 27 due to an ankle sprain. Caballero led off the third inning with a single, stole second, stole third and scored on J.P. Crawford’s looping single to left. Caballero tied the game in the fourth inning, punching a single up the middle to score Hernandez.
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Source: The Seattle Times
