Astros Even Series

I guess you could say it would eventually happen the Houston Astros beat the Mariners on Tuesday night. It was one of those games down to the end before knowing who would win. In the end the Astros won 3-2.

The game actually had more offense than the score indicated as the Astros had ten hits and the Mariners had nine. You would have thought that the Mariners could have scored more runs since they did not hit into any double plays while the Astros hit into six of them. Sometimes baseball games can be stranger than fiction. The game was still played with the roof was open at Safeco Field despite the air quality in the area.

It was an interesting game in the fact that both teams had to go with the bullpen throughout the game. It was expected with the Astros throwing Brad Peacock however the Mariners were supposed to go with starter Mike Leake who had an outstanding start in his last outing but he came to the ballpark ill so the Mariners started reliever Nick Vincent which was his first in his major league career. He actually didn’t do a bad job going two innings giving up one hit and a walk in two innings without a run. Peacock only went an inning and a third for the Astros giving up three hits. Unfortunately the Mariners weren’t able to score any runs while Peacock was pitching.

The Astros went with a rookie pitcher making his debut in Framber Valdez who went four and a third innings giving up two hits and a run to the Mariners. He recorded the victory for the Astros while the Mariners brought in Ross Detwiler who was expected to start Tuesday night in Tacoma. He actually went further going six innings for the Mariners giving up eight hits and three runs including a solo home run to outfielder Josh Reddick in the fourth inning. Of course he recorded the loss despite a good effort. If he had started the game he would have had a quality start. Lefty Zach Duke finished the game going in the ninth inning for the Mariners. So the Mariners were able to use the bullpen at the minimum using three pitchers all together. I expect that the Mariners will bring up another reliever in place of Detwiler who likely will be sent back to Tacoma since he did go six innings.

Marco Gonzales who originally was supposed to start on Sunday but was pushed back will go for the Mariners Wednesday afternoon. The Mariners are hoping with a couple extra days off he will be refreshed and able to go at least six innings and a quality start to have the Mariners win the series. The loss to Astros on Tuesday night means that the Mariners are now four and a half games out of the lead.

The importance for the Mariner hitters is to be able to drive in runs with runners in scoring position. They certainly had the opportunity on Tuesday night. In fact in the eighth inning when they scored their second run of the game they had the bases loaded with Kyle Seager up to bat when he struck out however the catcher had a passed ball so Mitch Haniger scored the second run. The Mariners were unable to score another run though the opportunities to score two runs were there too.

The Mariners after finishing Wednesday afternoon’s game they will have Thursday off and head to Arizona to take on the Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks have a one and half lead ahead of the Colorado Rockies and three and half ahead of the Dodgers. It is important that the Mariners play better in this series than they have against both the Rockies and the Dodgers. So this series is important to both teams so the action should be like being in the playoffs. We hope better from the Mariners. Go M’s.