The angry boos rained down for Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman each time they stepped to the plate with intense vitriol. And every out they made was celebrated with glee.
As Andres Muñoz fired triple-digit fastballs and nasty sliders to overwhelmed Astros hitters in the ninth inning, the chants of “Let’s Go Mariners! Let’s Go Mariners!” filled T-Mobile Park.
There have been larger crowds this season, but there haven’t been any more fueled with dislike and other things as the 23,814 in attendance Monday evening.
The Astros were back in town. The unending hatred was palpable. And Muñoz closing out the Mariners’ 3-2 victory with a strikeout of Jon Singleton?
Well, that was met with a joyful standing ovation.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” manager Scott Servais said of the energy. “There’s usually a good energy here when we play the Astros in this ballpark. We have a lot of history with that team. There’s just a little bit more edge to it. They have owned the division, them and the Rangers have been at the top. Ultimately to get where we want to, we’re gonna have to beat these teams and beat them over and over.”
Competing with Houston, let alone beating the perennial division winners, was a problem in years past. But the Mariners have slowly proved they are at the same level, if not better. They went 9-4 against Houston last season and are 3-1 this season.
“Everyone knows the story behind this,” Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford said of the rivalry and simmering animosity. “And that’s true for us, at least for me. I take every game to heart against these guys. It’s always a fun series. But there’s always that little edge just because of years previous and things that happened.”
This most recent win? Well, it might feel a little sweeter and has a little more meaning for a game in May because the Astros are chasing the Mariners in the standings. Houston came into Seattle having won of 12 its last 17 games.
After ending a forgettable road trip with a decisive win over the Nationals, the Mariners followed it up with another win to start the homestand. They have six games remaining in this stretch of 17 games in 17 days before their next off day.
“This is our 11th game in a row today,” Servais said. “We’re on a tough stretch right now, but I talked to them earlier today and told them it’s like a sprint. Just put your head down and keep running. That’s what we need to do night in and night out.”
The Mariners jumped all over Astros starter Framber Valdez in the first inning. Crawford ripped a ground ball past Jose Abreu at first base for a leadoff double. After Dylan Moore popped up to second, Julio Rodriguez slashed a single to right past Altuve to put runners on the corners. Mitch Garver worked a walk to load the bases for Cal Raleigh.
When Raleigh smacked a fastball from Valdez toward the gap in right-center, it looked like he would have at least a two-run double if not clear the bases. Instead, Jake Meyers made a brilliant running/lunging catch at the warning track. Raleigh had to settle for a sac fly and a 1-0 lead.
But his teammates kept the pressure on Valdez. Ty France followed with a ground ball through the left side to score Rodriguez from third base to make it 2-0. Mitch Haniger made it 3-0 with a crisp single up the middle to score Garver from second.
When Valdez got rookie Ryan Bliss to ground out to second base in his first MLB at-bat, he had thrown 25 pitches. That number would grow to 43 after he needed 18 pitches to work a scoreless second.
“We were all over Framber early and that’s what you have to do against him,” Servais said. “He did settle down and got deeper in the game than we’d like to see him.”
The All-Star lefty was able to find some rhythm, command and efficiency. He wouldn’t allow another run the rest of his outing. He retired 11 in a row at one point and worked six complete innings on 96 pitches. He walked three and struck out four.
Seattle had plenty of traffic in the game. The Mariners tallied six hits, worked five walks and only struck out five times.
“We hit some balls hard with runners in scoring position,” Servais said, mentioning three hard hits for Raleigh that were all outs. “We could have scored six or seven runs.”
But three was a lot for starter Bryce Miller.
Given the early run support, Miller cruised through the first four innings, allowing just one base runner on a one-out walk to Kyle Tucker in the first inning.
His streak of 12 hitters retired in a row came to an end with a single from Meyers with one out in the fifth inning. Singleton and Abreu each followed with singles to get Meyers home for the Astros’ first run. Victor Caratini scored Singleton from third with a deep sac fly to make it 3-2.
The inning looked like it might spin out of control when Altuve doubled to left field. But Abreu could only get to third on the play even with two outs. Miller was able to retire the dangerous Tucker with a ground out to second to end the inning
Miller came back and worked a scoreless inning despite a throwing error by Bliss and an awkward infield single off the bat of Meyers that should’ve been an out.
“I made a couple mistakes and fell behind a little bit in the fifth,” Miller said. “But I was able to get out of it with two runs and keep us ahead. That’s something I wasn’t really able to do last year. I’d turn a one- or two-run inning into like three or four runs. And those are hard to come back from. It’s limiting the damage in those damage innings and keep us in the game.”
His final line: six innings pitched, two runs allowed on five hits with two walks and six strikeouts. It was his sixth quality start of the season and the Mariners’ 32nd quality start this season, moving them to the most in MLB just ahead of the Phillies at 31.
Seattle’s bullpen was flawless. Trent Thornton, Gabe Speier and Muñoz each worked scoreless innings, allowing only one base runner.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/roundup-writereditor-loved-deals-tout-f5de51f85de145b2b1eb99cdb7b6cb84.jpg "I’m a Travel Writer, and Out of the 5 Million Prime Day Deals on Site, These Are the 12 I’m Shopping")
