HOUSTON _ A series win over the Astros at Minute Maid Park? Those just don't happen for the Mariners, particularly not this season.
It's an accomplishment to be certain and needed for a team still holding on to hope for a spot in the postseason.
While the 12-4 trouncing of the Astros on Wednesday afternoon was needed, there is still the sting of the loss less than 24 hours earlier that wasn't completely erased. A series win was big, but a series sweep could have been season defining.
Instead, they'll go back to Seattle and face the A's in a four-game series with no margin for error. Seattle is 84-74 and needs the Tigers and Orioles to lose games to make up ground.
In a place where no lead is safe and against a team that has provided plenty of late-inning nightmares, the Mariners put the game out of reach, scoring a combined five runs over the seventh and eighth inning to turn a 7-4 game into a rout.
The Mariners jumped on Astros starter Doug Fister for three runs in the first inning. Robinson Cano continued to torment the Astros, hitting an opposite field three-run homer into the left field stands known as the Crawford Boxes.
Fister was knocked out of the game an inning later, exiting on Ketel Marte's single that put runners on the corners with one out. The Mariners greeted his replacement _ left-hander Kevin Chapman _ with back-to-back hits. Norichika Aoki slapped a sharp single up the middle to score Leonys Martin to make it 4-0. Marte went first to third on the hit and Aoki advanced to second on the throw. That loomed large when Seth Smith looped a single into right field over the drawn-in infield to score both runners and push the lead to 6-0.
Seattle pushed its lead to 7-0 in the third inning, which seemed like plenty for starter James Paxton. The big left-hander looked solid, giving up just one run over the first four innings. The blemish came on a solo homer from George Springer in the third inning. But back-to-back doubles and RBI single from Alex Bregman led to a pair of runs in the fifth inning. With Paxton's pitch count at 91 after he finished the fifth inning, manager Scott Servais went to his bullpen.
Nick Vincent started the sixth inning for Seattle and never registered an out. His first pitch of the frame was deposited in the left field seats by Evan Gattis for a solo homer to cut the lead to 7-4. The next two batters registered hits. That was enough to end his outing. Servais called on Evan Scribner and the veteran right-hander stopped any sort of a rally, striking out the first two hitters he faced and getting to Springer to ground out to end the inning.
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