Houston’s offense falters in 6-1 loss to the Mariners. Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images.
Bryce Miller threw seven shutout innings and Julio Rodríguez had three hits and two RBIs to help the Seattle Mariners to a 6-1 win Monday night over Houston that prevented the Astros from clinching the AL West title.
The Astros entered needing only a victory over second-place Seattle to secure their fourth straight division crown.
Instead, they struggled against Miller (12-8), managing just two singles while playing without injured slugger Yordan Alvarez.
Seattle has won four of five to move within 1 1/2 games of the final American League wild-card spot in a crowded race that also includes Detroit, Kansas City and Minnesota.
The Mariners are four games behind the Astros in the division standings with five to play. Houston will have another chance to wrap up the AL West when the teams meet again Tuesday night.
Jon Singleton walked with one out in the second and an infield single by Jeremy Peña gave Houston its first hit with two outs. Miller sailed through the next few innings, retiring the 13 consecutive batters before walking Alex Bregman to start the seventh.
Yainer Diaz singled on a grounder to right field and both runners advanced on a groundout by Singleton. But then Miller struck out the next two hitters to end his night.
Houston starter Hunter Brown (11-9) permitted three hits and a run with eight strikeouts in six innings.
Seattle’s Justin Turner had a hit and an RBI to extend his streak of reaching base safely to 18 games, which is the longest active run in the majors.
Cal Raleigh put the Mariners up early with an RBI single in the third.
Turner singled to open the seventh before a one-out single by J.P. Crawford chased reliever Caleb Ferguson. Kaleb Ort took over and walked pinch-hitter Dylan Moore to load the bases.
Rodríguez singled home Turner with two outs to push the lead to 2-0. Moore was thrown out at third on the play to end the inning.
Raleigh, Randy Arozarena and Luke Raley hit consecutive singles to load the bases to start the eighth. A sacrifice fly by Turner made it 3-0, and a double by Jorge Polanco sent another run home.
Houston got its only run on a homer by Jason Heyward to start the eighth.
Rodríguez and Arozarena added RBI doubles in the ninth to make it 6-1.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Mariners: RHP Gregory Santos (biceps inflammation) was reinstated from the 15-day injured list. … LHP Jhonathan Díaz was optioned to the team’s spring training complex.
Astros: Alvarez was scheduled to have an MRI on Monday after dealing with inflammation after he bruised his right knee on a slide Sunday.
Update: He has been diagnosed with a sprained knee, and won't play in the Mariners series.
Yordan Alvarez has a right knee sprain. He will not be available this series.
— Julia Morales (@JuliaMorales) September 24, 2024
UP NEXT
The Mariners hadn’t announced their starter for Tuesday night. LHP Framber Valdez (14-7, 2.85 ERA) will pitch for Houston.
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The MLB postseason is right around the corner, and one of the most popular discussions about the Astros has to be (or at least was) Justin Verlander's role moving forward.
It appears Houston GM Dana Brown plans on reevaluating Verlander's status after the first playoff series.
Which is quite a position reversal compared to his last comments about JV when he broke out the “back of the baseball card” nonsense on the club's flagship station on September 11. Better late than never, I suppose.
With that said, it appears the Astros will role with Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, and Yusei Kikuchi. Which seems like the right choice at the moment.
But now the Astros have another x-factor to navigate. If Yordan Alvarez is able to play with his sprained knee in the postseason, it's hard to imagine he would be playing in left field.
With him locked in at DH, Yainer Diaz will have to either catch or play first base. The same goes for Victor Caratini if he's in the starting lineup. Which also means that games in which both Caratini and Diaz play, Jon Singleton will be on the bench.
We'll likely see a platoon at first between Caratini and Singleton when Diaz is behind the dish. Mauricio Dubon could also factor in.
Which leads us to the outfield. Kyle Tucker is a no-brainer to play right field, and we'll likely see a platoon in left between Jason Heyward and Dubon.
One would assume Jake Meyers gets the nod to play center field due to his excellent play on defense, but you never know. As Chandler Rome noted in his article for The Athletic this week, Meyers has the 4th-worst OPS (.540) in baseball since the All-Star break.
Dubon is starting in center on Tuesday night. Make of that what you will. Could be nothing, or could be something.
We could also see Chas McCormick play some center or left field should he return healthy from his hand/finger injury.
Plus, how many pitchers and position players should the Astros carry in the Wild Card round? Should they keep more hitters so they can pinch hit for guys like Meyers should they find themselves down in a big game?
Don't miss the video above for the full discussion!
*Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and Charlie Pallilo discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.