5th Straight Win Against Astros

Going into Monday night’s game against the Houston Astros at Safeco Field the Mariners had a terrible series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. One of the reasons that the Mariners didn’t get swept by the Dodgers was Saturday’s game the pitcher for them had a balk that allowed the winning run in the tenth inning. Anyway I hope this series will put the Mariners back on winning track.

The Astros started the scoring in the first inning with a home run by Marwin Gonzales however the Mariners were able to get two runs of their own in the bottom of the first inning with a single by Mitch Haniger leading off followed by a double by Robinson Cano and then another hit to get Cano home. It would have been nice to get more runs in that inning however the way the offense has been going we can’t be cozy or can we? I figured since Gerrit Cole who has a fine season so far the team needs to score against him when the opportunity arises.

In the third inning the Astros scored three runs to take a 4-2 with two of the runs drove in by no other than Marwin Gonzales with a double. He had a total of three hits in the game. I thought at that point the Mariners should have taken Felix out of the game but the Mariners thought different and he was able to pitch six innings without giving up another run after the third. The Mariners did close the gap scoring a run in the fourth and sixth inning that included a double by Mike Zunino that scored Ben Gamel who returned after spending around three weeks with Tacoma. He started in right field and Mitch Haniger switched to center with Denard Span in left field. The Mariners also had Jean Segura back as well. All of them contributed in the game for the Mariners. The Mariners sent Guillermo Heredia to get his bat up and going again. The Mariners aren’t expected to face too many lefties over the next ten games. So Cameron Maybin will be the presence in center field while Heredia is gone though Haniger played there Monday night.

With the score 4-4 it looked like it was going to be another one of those one run games whether the Astros won or the Mariners come from behind. Robinson Cano had something else in mind in the bottom of the eighth inning with two runners on base he hit a home run to make it 7-4. Of course by no surprise Edwin Diaz came in to shut the door on the Astros to get the victory for the Mariners with his 48^th save. Alex Colome who pitched the eighth inning got the win for the Mariners.

Mike Leake will be pitching Tuesday night for the Mariners. Brad Peacock coming out of the bullpen will be going for the Astros. The Mariners are now three and half games out of first place while the Astros and A’s are at the top of the division. So still a tight race with one of the three teams going home at the end of September while the other two are in the playoffs. Of course winning the division is the most important thing so they don’t have to play the wild card game. We and the Mariners will take either spot though winning the division would be the best thing. Now two more games against the Astros then the Mariners have a day off on Thursday.

The Mariners than will go to Arizona to take on the Diamondbacks in another interleague series followed by two games against the San Diego Padres and finish the road trip with four games in Oakland against the A’s. They will have an eight game home stand in early September against the Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees and the San Diego Padres. Go M’s.