J.P. Crawford delivers as Mariners walk off Astros in 10 innings

A familiar foe on the mound, the Mariners played with a familiar futility against future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander.

In the end, they still somehow managed a familiar finish. Just another chaotic comeback.

With the bases loaded and one out in the 10th inning, J.P. Crawford hit a deep sacrifice fly to right field, easily scoring free runner Jonatan Clase from third base and giving the Mariners a 2-1 victory over the Houston Astros on Wednesday night before a crowd of 25,437 at T-Mobile Park.

If you don’t look forward to being the hero of the night, you’re in the wrong sport,” Crawford said. “ … I want to be the guy every time I step up there. When it’s on the line, I’m gonna get it done.”

It’s the third walkoff victory of the season and fifth for Crawford in his career, giving the Mariners (31-26) their third straight victory over the Astros (24-32) in this four-game series. The Mariners will go for a series sweep Thursday afternoon.

Dominic Canzone’s solo homer in the sixth inning broke up Verlander’s shutout, George Kirby threw six sharp innings of his own in a terrific pitchers’ duel, and the Mariners improved to an MLB-best 11-4 in one-run games despite an offense that matched a season high with 15 strikeouts.

“We know we’re not there yet,” Crawford said of the lineup. “Everyone’s going through ups and downs right now. But at the end of the day, once we step on those lines, you know, it’s win the game. It doesn’t matter about personal numbers or anything like that. And you see that a lot one through nine with this group.”

The Mariners, 18-10 at home, have won four in a row. They are 14-5 against the Astros since getting swept in the 2022 AL Division Series.

“We have played much better against them since that forgettable day here when we played 18 innings,” manager Scott Servais said. “I think our guys understand you’ve got to beat these teams. You want to win the division, you’ve got to beat the teams that have been there. They have owned the division here over the last six, seven years.

“It’s not gonna be easy. You’ve got to figure out a way every night, and you’ve got to have different guys contribute. And that’s what we’re doing right now.”

Reliever Mike Baumann, acquired in a trade from Baltimore last week, picked up his first win with the Mariners after working a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the 10th, stranding the Astros’ free runner at second.

Mariners relievers have thrown 12 consecutive scoreless innings since Sunday.

The Mariners had spoiled a prime chance in the bottom of the ninth, stranding Julio Rodriguez at third base with one out. The Astros’ Josh Hader struck out pinch hitter Ryan Bliss and then Mitch Haniger to escape.

Kirby rebounded from two rough starts on the road to pitch six sharp inning, scattering six hits (all singles) with no walks and eight strikeouts. He threw for the first time to veteran Mitch Garver, who made his first appearance at catcher for the Mariners.

Kirby mixed in five of his pitches, and repeatedly pitched inside with his two-seam fastball against the Astros’ right-handed hitters. He also gained confidence in his splitter after struggling with that pitch in recent weeks.

“I always want to come out strong like that,” Kirby said. “I finally saw some good results on the splitter tonight. I was just like, ‘Screw it; I’m gonna throw it as hard as I can, see what happens,’ and it finally started moving a little bit.

“They’re aggressive, so you’ve just got to make them feel uncomfortable. I used a lot of different offspeed tonight and thought that worked really well.”

The Astros scored their lone run in the fourth inning when Jake Meyers sent a soft single to center field — 72.4 mph off the bat — on a 3-2 pitch with two outs. That scored Yordan Alvarez from third.

Kirby escaped a jam in the sixth inning to close out his night.

After a Alvarez single, Jeremy Peña beat out an infield single to put runners on the corners with one out.

But Kirby struck out Alex Bregman with back-to-back splitters, then got Meyers to ground out to end in the inning, stranding the go-ahead run at third.

Kirby, in six starts at home this season, lowered his ERA to 2.72 across 36.1 innings, with 42 strikeouts, three walks and one home run allowed.

In six road starts, Kirby has a 5.63 ERA, with eight homers in 32 innings.

Verlander was even better for the Astros.

The oldest active pitcher in the majors, the 41-year-old made his 39th start against the Mariners.

Gone is the upper-90s velocity that helped him win three Cy Young Awards, but this was vintage Verlander.

The tall right-hander scattered three hits over seven innings, with one walk and nine strikeouts, lowering his career ERA to 2.98 against Seattle.

He induced 15 swings and misses, and when the Mariners did make contact it was feeble.

“That was some kind of pitching out there tonight — that’s as good as it gets in this league, any league, watching Verlander and George go back and forth,” Servais said.

Kirby, for his part, didn’t pay attention to what Verlander was doing. Instead, he stuck to his between-innings routine, sitting quietly in the tunnel behind the Mariners dugout and meditating.

“Verlander’s one of my favorite pitchers growing up,” Kirby said. “So having that moment is pretty cool. But for me, I go in the tunnel and do my own thing.”

Verlander’s only mistake was a 92-mph first-pitch fastball to Canzone in the sixth inning.

Canzone turned on the pitch at the top of the zone, blasting 108.8 mph off the bat for a 411-foot homer to right-center. It was the first “hard” contact (95 mph or greater) Verlander had allowed.

It was Canzone’s fifth homer of the season, and it tied the score at 1-1.

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