Astros defeat Mariners, Mariners also defeat Mariners, lose to Astros 3-5

Mariners spoil Kirby’s gem, lose to Astros in early season leader for dumbest game of the year

How many more times can we say this? The Astros outmaneuvered the Mariners tonight, as the Mariners came apart at the seams in the seventh inning, allowing a precious lead to evaporate into the Houston night, and with it, some degree of hope of winning the series. Looking much more the nightmare Astros of recent vintage than these early-season Lastros, the Mariners and Astros slugged it out in a pitching duel tonight until some key mistakes from the Mariners snowballed into a disastrous seventh inning, eventually leading to a loss.

Things didn’t start off so grim. The Mariners actually drew first blood, in the third inning. After striking him out looking on a changeup up in the zone in the first inning, Ronel Blanco tried to sneak the same pitch by Jorge Polanco again in his second at-bat. This time, though, Polanco was ready:

Things were going really well when the Mariners touched up Blanco in the fifth for three consecutive hits: a single from Luke Raley followed by a Crawford Boxes special homer from DMo to make the score 3-1.

Honestly, it’s nice to see a Mariners hitter making Baby’s First Ballpark work for them:

Unfortunately, the good vibes of this game end here. Even though Josh Rojas kept the pressure on in that inning, rolling a single up the third base line, the BABIP gods spat upon Julio, who absolutely scalded a ball at 111 mph directly into Jeremy Peña’s glove for an unfortunate double play. And that is where things started to fall apart. The Mariners weren’t able to add on against Blanco, despite doing work against his pitch count and getting him out by the seventh inning, as Seth Martinez shut the Mariners down on five pitches in the seventh.

Surprisingly, Scott Servais also pulled Kirby, at 88 pitches, for the seventh inning, not letting him see the bottom of the lineup a third time. Postgame, Servais revealed that Kirby has been fighting a knee issue:

Bum knee or not, Kirby was still strong tonight, if maybe not as dominant as his last couple turns; he only collected nine whiffs, with the Astros fouling off a fair number of pitches, and only struck out three over six innings. He allowed one run, in the fourth inning, making back-to-back mistakes on location, leaving a sinker on the plate that Álvarez blasted for a double followed by another four-seamer left on the plate for Bregman to hit as a single; a Jeremy Peña RBI groundout would bring home what was, at the time, the tying run. It wasn’t vintage lockdown Kirby, but with a solid bullpen behind him, surely he could take a slightly early leave? Surely no ill would befall that pie cooling on the windowsill?

Alas, this is where things fell apart, in one of the worst innings we’ve seen from the Mariners pitching staff in quite some time. Trent Thornton immediately got into trouble, walking Jeremy Peña and then getting stung by a comebacker off the bat of Yainer Díaz to put two on with no outs. Jon Singleton grounded out, moving the runners along, bringing up rookie Joey Loperfido, already 2-for-2 on the night off Kirby with a couple of BABIP-inflated hits. Servais brought in Gabe Speier to deal with the lefty Loperfido, but of course the Astros just immediately substituted in Jake Meyers.

Then, disaster. Speier walked Meyers, and then Cal Raleigh made an errant pickoff throw that allowed a run to score. A sac fly from Dubón where Haniger and Julio crashed into each other tied the game, and then Altuve bunted for a hit to put the Astros up 4-3. Speier totally lost his sense of the strike zone, walking Tucker and Alvarez to load the bases once again, causing Servais to summon Cody Bolton from the pen, who promptly fell behind Alex Bregman 2-0 before eventually walking him to make it 5-3 Astros. That’s five walks in the inning, if you’re counting. It was a bullpen meltdown we haven’t seen this season, and really, it’s hard to remember the last time we saw the bullpen have that much trouble throwing strikes.

Bolton finally punched out Peña looking to end the pain, but the damage was done; moreover, the Mariners weren’t done getting in their own way. Ryan Pressly, who has struggled this year, allowed back-to-back singles to lead off the eighth to Rojas and Julio, but Jorge Polanco struck out looking, and then Mitch Haniger flew out and Rojas—forced to try to run home because Julio was running to third—got caught off the bases for an inning-ending double play. Yuck.

Josh Hader continued the run of Astros Pitchers Looking Mortal But Getting Away With It, Somehow, walking Ty France with one out but striking out Mitch Garver and pinch-hitter Luis Urías to end the game. Gross. The Mariners, when gifted the Astros kicking themselves in the teeth to open the season, instead kicked themselves in the teeth, then threw themselves down a flight of stairs for good measure.

But here’s what’s especially bad about tonight’s loss: yes, the Astros have been swept a bunch this season. But also, when they can win even one game in a series, they wind up winning the series; they don’t have a series loss that’s not a sweep. The Mariners handed the Astros tonight’s victory on a silver platter. Now, they’ll have to spend the rest of the weekend playing catch up.