The Houston Astros were hoping to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the series, but the Seattle Mariners had other plans as the Mariners defeated the Astros 10-5.
The Houston Astros entered Saturday night with a 1-0 lead in the series, hoping to go up 2-0 in the series, but the Seattle Mariners had other plans as they defeated the Astros 10-5 to tie the series at 1-1.
Starting with the pitching for the Astros, it was a really tough night for both Hayden Wesneski who started the game and Ronel Blanco who finished it.
Wesneski pitched in four innings, and in those four innings he allowed five runs, seven hits, walked one batter, and posted an ERA of 5.16. Additionally, Wesneski tallied five errors, but on the positive side, he was able to strike out six Mariners batters. With the loss, Wesneski now has an overall record of 2-1, and whenever he does pitch next, he will definitely need to make some changes.
After Wesneski, Bryan King pitcher for one inning and allowed just one hit and added a strikeout which was a solid outing for him.
Following King's strong outing, Blanco walked up to the pitching mound for the final four innings and it did not go well at all. In Blanco's four innings, he allowed five runs with one of them being a home run, seven hits, tallied five errors, walked one batter. However, Blanco did add three strikeouts, but it was not enough to get the Astros back in it.
Overall, the pitching was a tough showing for the Astros, and heading into Sunday and really the rest of the season, they have to figure out a way to be much better from the mound, otherwise they may lose their lead in the AL West.
Now, looking at the scoring, in the bottom of the first, Jose Altuve hit an infield single that brought designated hitter Yordan Alvarez home and gave Houston a 1-0 lead. After that, in the top of the second inning, the Mariners scored four runs, which gave them a 4-1 lead. Then, in the bottom of the second, Christian Vasquez hit a home run to help the Astros cut the Seattle lead to 4-2.
Then in the fourth inning, the Mariners added a run, and in the eighth inning added two more runs, which extended the Seattle lead to 7-2. In the bottom of the eighth, Houston responded as Isaac Paredes hit a two-run home run, bringing in Jeremy Pena to trim the Mariners' lead to 7-4.
In the top of the ninth, Seattle hit a three-run home run, which gave them even more cushion as they extended the lead to 10-4.
The final run of the game came for the Astros in the bottom of the ninth inning, when Christian Walker grounded out to second, which brought Altuve home and put Houston down 10-5.
After the final run, the Astros could not get anything going as Taylor Trammell hit fly to the right that Seattle caught and then Cam Smith fouled out to first to end the game.
From start to finish, this was a pretty rough outing for the Astros and showed that the pitching needs to get significantly better, especially after allowing seven runs in the first game of the series as well. With Houston allowing 17 runs in the series so far, they are hoping that Hunter Brown can figure something out and create any kind of positive momentum from the mound.
After falling to the Mariners on Saturday night, the Astros are now 63-61 on the season and lead the AL West by two games over the Texas Rangers, who are 61-63.
Heading into Sunday night and really the rest of the season, the Astros must find a way to pitch more consistently and effectively, otherwise, the race for this division could get even tighter and come down to the final few games of the regular season.
