SEATTLE _ This is what good baseball teams do. They take advantage of prime opportunities. They make opponents pay for costly mistakes. They minimize lapses themselves.
The Houston Astros did all of that Thursday afternoon in a 9-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field, and they did all that well enough over the last three days to again foil their AL West rival.
En route to their first World Series title last year, the Astros won 14 of 19 games against Mariners. In their first series of 2018, Houston took three of four at Safeco, halting a strong start to the season for the Mariners.
In the series finale Thursday, the Astros rode another dominant pitching performance to shut down the Mariners offense. Right-hander Charlie Morton limited Seattle to three hits in seven innings, striking out eight and walking none. He retired 15 in a row during one stretch in the middle innings.
The Mariners (9-8) won a crisp game, 2-1, in the series opener Monday, one of the highlight performances of the early season. But over the final three games they were outscored 20-4 and they hit just .161 (15-for-93).
Left-hander Marco Gonzales was effective early for the Mariners on Thursday. He struck out George Springer (looking), Jose Altuve (looking) and Carlos Correa (swinging) on 18 pitches in the first inning. By the end of the third inning, he had set a season high in strikeouts with seven.
Gonzales got out of a jam in the fourth inning when Astros designated hitter Evan Gattis grounded into an unusual 5-4-3 triple play. Kyle Seager fielded the ball at third, touched his base for the first out and threw to Robinson Cano for a force out at second base.
Gattis, safe at first base on the fielder's choice, then jogged back onto the infield, believing there were already three outs. First baseman Daniel Vogelbach, after receiving a throw from Cano, was about to tag Gattis for the delayed third out when an umpire ruled Gattis out.
It was the Mariners' first triple play since July 2015 at Toronto.
The Astros scored four runs in the fifth inning, all unearned after a Seager error to start the inning. The first run scored when a Josh Reddick blooper landed in center field between Dee Gordon and Jean Segura. That allowed Alex Bregman to score from third.
Gonzales, after two turns through the Astros' lineup, was pulled with two on and two out in the fifth. Right-hander Dan Altavilla walked Springer and then gave up a three-run double to Altuve, the reigning American League MVP.
On an 0-1 pitch, Altuve reached to hit a slider that was off the plate away and lift it just over the head of right fielder Mitch Haniger, who had been positioned shallow on the play.
Max Stassi hit a solo homer for Houston in the seventh.
Catcher David Freitas doubled to drive in Guillermo Heredia for the Mariners' first run in the eighth. Jean Segura added an RBI double to make it 6-2.
The Astros scored three more runs in the ninth inning, including a solo homer from Reddick off M's reliever Wade LeBlanc.
