New-look Astros narrowly defeated by old-look Mariners, 4-3

Excellent starting pitching, okay defense, and just enough offense get Mariners their fourth win of the season

After watching the Astros up close for the first time this season, it already feels pretty clear that—right now, at least—this isn’t the same offensive juggernaut that terrorized the AL West for years. Kyle Tucker and Alex Bregman are both gone, lessening the thorny tangle that was the top of the Astros’ lineup, leaving Yordan Álvarez and a well-marinated José Altuve as the only remaining pillars of the Astros lineup that caused Mariners fans to gnash their teeth. As for the youth movement, vaunted catcher Yainer Díaz is off to a slow start; Jeremy Peña is off to a hot one, but is rebuilding after a disappointing 2024; and highly touted prospect Cam Smith sat out tonight’s contest after a torrid start cooled down quickly.

Unfortunately, after watching the Mariners up close several times this season, it feels pretty clear that they are still very much the team they were last season, plus a very important addition in the form of two healthy knees for Jorge Polanco, and that—plus Ryan Bliss’s first homer of the season, as he finally figured out how to not hit it to the absolute deepest part of the park—was the difference in tonight’s ballgame.

Annoyingly, the Astros still have excellent starting pitching, even if sometimes it takes that pitching a while to get going. In the first inning, Astros starter Hayden Wesneski left a lot of pitches on the plate, but the Mariners hitters couldn’t square them up, and when they did, they got unlucky: Polanco smoked a ball in the first (103 EV), but right at a defender, and Cal Raleigh couldn’t squeak a grounder past new first baseman Christian Walker for what would have been an early first run, as Randy Arozarena had singled and stolen second before him. After that, Wesneski settled into a groove, retiring nine straight hitters; after Raleigh grounded out first-pitch swinging in the fourth, a light smattering of boos could be heard.

The Mariners finally broke through some in the fifth, when two pitches resulted in two runs for the Mariners: Dylan Moore took the first pitch he saw, a sinker, to left field for a base hit, and then Ryan Bliss made a nice adjustment from his first at-bat, when he had grounded out on a sweeper. Wesneski threw him the same pitch to open the at-bat that he had in the second inning, but this time, Bliss was ready for the 93 mph fastball, and pounced for his first home run of the season.

“I definitely logged it,” said Bliss postgame of seeing the same pitch twice. “I did remember the first at-bat. He started with a heater in; I just missed it, but I was on it. And I told myself, if he throws it again, just be ready for it. Just went up there, hey, I might get this pitch again, be ready. And I did, and put a good swing on it, and this one left.”

Unfortunately, Logan Gilbert gave one of those runs right back with one of his few mistakes on the night, falling behind José Altuve and leaving a curveball on the plate that Altuve punished over the left field fence for a solo home run. Guys, I am begging you, please stop booing Altuve, it doesn’t work. America may run on Dunkin’; that tiny man runs on spite.

Other than that one mistake pitch, Gilbert was once again near-perfect, carrying a no-hitter up until the point of the Altuve homer. If there is a nit to pick in his performance it’s in efficiency, as Gilbert needed 99 pitches to finish 5.2 innings, getting into a few long battles with the pesky Astros, including a ten-pitch battle earlier with Altuve in the third where Gilbert was able to put him away on the curveball that Altuve would later hit out, so some battle/war stuff there. Gilbert used his secondaries—especially the splitter and curveball—heavily against the Astros, keeping them off-balance but also running up his pitch count some, collecting seven strikeouts on the evening.

“I thought his splitter was outstanding,” said manager Dan Wilson. “Really, all his secondaries were very good, very sharp, but that splitter was outstanding.”

The Mariners did whatever the opposite of an answer-back inning is in the bottom of the sixth, going down 1-2-3 on just five pitches and bringing Trent Thornton—who had to come on to get the last hitter of the sixth after Gilbert walked Yordan Álvarez on four pitches to put him at 99 for the day—back out to face the middle of the Astros lineup. Thornton, to his credit, quickly put the middle of the Astros lineup down 1-2-3 with two strikeouts, but the Mariners then repeated exactly what they’d done in the sixth.

Out came Gregory Santos, who immediately gave up a leadoff single to Jake Meyers. Dubón then sacrificed him over to second, bringing up...of course, Altuve, once again to a chorus of boos. A wild pitch moved the tying run to third and Altuve walked, bringing up Isaac Paredes, who spent his time in the box against Logan Gilbert desperately trying to yank a pitch out over the left-field wall. Any chance of the double play was quickly put out of order when Altuve stole second. Santos got the second out with a flyout, well-played with a strong relay throw in by Julio to keep the speedy Meyers at third. Manager Dan Wilson then looked like he was going to summon for Gabe Speier to pitch to the lefty Alvarez, but instead opted to intentionally walk Alvarez and leave in Santos, a ground-ball specialist, in the hopes of getting an inning-ending double play.

To his credit, Santos got the double play ball, getting Christian Walker to chop over the top of a slider, just as he had against Thornton to bail the Mariners out of trouble in the sixth. But the Gold Glover Dylan Moore misplayed the ball, allowing two runs to score and putting the Astros up, 3-2.

However, with Wesneski finally out of the game in the eighth, the Mariners were able to exert a little pressure on reliever Tayler Scott. Dylan Moore and pinch-hitter (for Ryan Bliss, source of the team’s only runs on the evening) Miles Mastrobuoni worked back-to-back walks—the only two walks taken by the Mariners on the evening. J.P. Crawford then bunted them over to scoring position with a well-placed bunt, which worked out, as it allowed Jorge Polanco, now with two functioning knees, to do this:

“We’ve seen so much barrel from him consistently,” said Wilson. “Last year, clearly there were some physical things that he was dealing with, and right now he’s really in a good spot. We talk about solid contact a lot, and he’s making a ton of solid contact.”

“I’m just trying to keep it simple,” said Polanco postgame. “Just, don’t let the moment overwhelm or make you feel like you have to do it. Just try to keep it simple and get a good pitch to hit.”

While Polanco scalded that ball (105 EV), it had an xBA of just .560: not a guaranteed hit. It feels like so many of these coin flip hits have gone against the Mariners so far this season, but tonight, the ball literally bounced their way.

It bounced their way again in the ninth, although this one is more easily attributable to skill. In the ninth, with a save opportunity and the game on the line, Andrés Muñoz spotted a perfectly-placed slider against Victor Caratini, who poked it back up the middle, seemingly destined for center field. Not so fast, said Sheriff J.P. Crawford (and his trusty deputy Rowdy):

The last time Muñoz was on the mound at T-Mobile Park in a save situation, he had trouble nailing down his command, needing Mitch Garver to come out and coach him through. Not so this time; after that dazzling play, Muñoz came back to strike out Yainer Díaz swinging on three pitches, and then coaxed an easy groundout from Meyers to secure the win: a complete win, a team win, the only kind of win these Mariners of recent vintage seem to know.

“It could have gone the other way,” said Wilson, “where we just folded our tents, but they don’t do that. They fight back. These guys do it over and over again. They fight, that’s what they do.”

“It’s just a complete team win,” said Gilbert. “That’s when we’re at our best.”