J.P. Crawford’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th inning brought home the deciding run as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Houston Astros 2-1 on Wednesday night.
Mike Baumann (2-0), acquired in a trade with Baltimore last week, pitched a scoreless inning of relief to earn the victory in his second outing with Seattle.
Dominic Canzone homered for the Mariners, who will attempt to sweep the four-game series against their American League West rivals on Thursday afternoon.
With pinch-runner Jonatan Clase at second to open the bottom of the 10th, Canzone hit a grounder to the right side of the infield to move Clase to third. Astros reliever Tayler Scott (1-2) walked both Cal Raleigh and Luke Raley to load the bases before Crawford flew out to deep right field to easily plate the speedy Clase.
The Mariners had a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth as Julio Rodriguez lined a one-out single to left off Josh Hader, stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Yainer Diaz. After a walk to Ty France, Hader struck out pinch-hitter Ryan Bliss and Mitch Haniger to send the game to extra innings.
Right-handers Justin Verlander of Houston and George Kirby of Seattle dueled for six-plus innings.
Verlander allowed one run on three hits in seven innings. He walked one and matched his season-high with nine strikeouts.
Kirby went six innings and gave up one run on six hits, with no walks and eight strikeouts.
Kirby retired the first eight batters he faced before Yainer Diaz dropped a broken-bat single into shallow right field with two outs in the third.
The Astros broke a scoreless tie in the fourth. Yordan Alvarez lined a single to left field and, with two outs, Alex Bregman lined a single to right-center to send Alvarez to third. Jake Meyers then hit a soft liner to center on a 3-2 pitch to bring home the run.
The Mariners tied it on Canzone’s solo shot to right-center with one out in the fifth. The 411-foot blast came on a first-pitch fastball from Verlander near the top of the strike zone.
The only hits Verlander allowed up until that point were second-inning singles by France and Haniger. Verlander struck out Canzone and Mitch Garver to end that inning.
Garver made his first start of the season at catcher after serving as the team’s primary designated hitter the first two months. That was due in part to Raleigh being 2-for-19 against Verlander.
–Field Level Media