It took a game-tying solo homer from Ty France, a superhuman relief performance from Paul Sewald that featured three strikeouts with the bases loaded, another single from France for the lead and a three-run homer from Kyle Seager and Yohan Ramirez retiring Jose Altuve and Michael Brantley with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th for the Mariners to finally close out a 6-3 win over the Astros.
Yep, Sunday’s series finale had a little bit of everything for the Mariners, who had been bullied by the Astros in the first two games of the series.
With the win, the Mariners (67-58) avoid being swept in the series and pick up their second win in seven games at Minute Maid Park this season. And just their third win in their last 23 games in Houston dating to the start of the 2019 season.
The victory certainly leaves the Mariners feeling a little better about the series, particularly as they head into an important two-game series in Oakland.
Down 2-0 going into the eighth inning, Jake Bauers and J.P. Crawford came up with back-to-back two-out doubles off old friend Kendall Graveman for the Mariners’ first run of the game.
In the ninth inning, France crushed his third homer in the series, sending a missile off the Phillips 66 billboard above the wall in deep left-center.
The Mariners seemed destined to give the game away when Luis Torrens, the designated runner to start the 10th inning, made a baserunning gaffe, getting thrown out at third base on a ground ball to shortstop to start the inning. The Mariners wouldn’t score in the frame and all the Astros had to do was push a run across in the bottom of the inning.
Pitching for the first time in this series, Sewald gave up a leadoff single to Altuve putting runners on the corners. The Mariners intentionally walked Brantley to load the bases. Sewald, with a little help from home-plate umpire Brian Gorman, struck out Carlos Correa looking and struck out Jason Castro and Yuli Gurriel swinging to push the game to the 11th.
France gave the Mariners the lead with a single to right field off Ryne Stanek and Seager unleashed a three-run blast to deep right-center for some key insurance runs.
Tyler Anderson gave the Mariners their most competitive start vs. the Astros in the series. He pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on eight hits with a walk and four strikeouts.
The Astros picked up both of their runs off him in the second inning. Yordan Alvarez, who has tortured Seattle pitching this series, ambushed the first pitch of the frame from Anderson, blasting a solo homer into right-center. Alvarez’s 25th homer of the season gave Houston a 1-0 lead.
Gurriel followed with a single. He advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored when Seager couldn’t make a backhanded stop on Taylor Jones’ two-out ground ball down the third baseline. It was originally ruled an error on Seager, but was later changed by the official scorer to an RBI double for Jones.
With his pitch count building fast over his first three innings, Anderson reeled it back in and pitched into the sixth inning.
He was lifted after giving up a one-out single to Aledmys Diaz and a double to Jake Meyers. Right-hander Joe Smith entered the game to face his former teammates and did so with perfect effectiveness, striking out Jones and Martin Maldonado to end the inning.
