HOUSTON _ Three games against the three All-Star starting pitchers for the defending World Series champions at Minute Maid Park, and the Mariners beat them all.
After defeating Justin Verlander on Thursday, besting Gerrit Cole on Friday, Seattle did just enough against right-hander Charlie Morton on Saturday to pull out a 3-2 victory over Houston.
The Mariners scored three runs off Morton in the fourth inning and got four shutout innings from their bullpen, punctuated by Edwin Diaz's 45th save.
Seattle improved to 68-50 with the victory.
The Astros grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the second inning off starter Wade LeBlanc. A one-out single by Yuli Gurriel and a ground-rule double from Josh Reddick set up Tyler White's two-run single to right-center.
But LeBlanc kept the damage to only two runs, retiring 11 of the next 12 batters before exiting after five complete innings. He allowed just three hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
The Mariners picked up all three of their runs off Morton in the fourth with two outs. Nelson Cruz dumped a single into center and then had to chug and rumble all the away around the bases, scoring on Kyle Seager's double to deep right-center that cut the lead to 2-1. Chris Herrmann followed with a drive to almost the same place as Seager's double, and the backup catcher was able to turn his shot into a run-scoring triple that tied the game.
The Mariners took the lead on Ryon Healy's soft ground ball up the first-base line that rolled past the less-than-nimble White at first for a single. Healy tried to stretch it to a double, but was thrown out at second, ending the inning.
With LeBlanc at 90 pitches, Seattle manager Scott Servais went to his bullpen early. Nick Vincent worked a 1-2-3 sixth inning and retired the first batter of the seventh. For the first time since being acquired, lefty specialist Zach Duke came in and delivered in his role, retiring left-handed hitting Reddick for the second out of the seventh. Right-hander Adam Warren was brought in to face right-handed hitting Tyler White, getting a ground-ball out.
The eighth inning featured more than a little drama. Setup man Alex Colome entered having worked the past two games. He looked gassed. He gave up a leadoff single to Max Stassi, but outfielder Guillermo Heredia showed why the Mariners kept him on the roster instead of Ben Gamel. Getting the start in center on Saturday, Heredia ran down a line drive from Tony Kemp to the gap in right-center, making a tremendous diving catch. Pinch runner Derek Fisher was running on the pitch and had already crossed second base. Heredia scrambled to his feet and fired to first base for the double play. But the third out of the inning didn't come easily. Colome gave up a single to Alex Bregman and walked Carlos Correa before getting Evan Gattis to fly out to end the inning. It was another scoreless inning for Colome, who has now worked the past 182/3 innings without allowing a run.
