HOUSTON — Eventually, the bullied get bigger and better with the bully getting belittled.
And the delayed reaction from the beaten-down bully was spiteful if not expected.
Led by their man-child of a superstar and his record-setting tear of hitting, the Seattle Mariners have moved past their prior failures against the Houston Astros, including their recent postseason heartbreak, while also exorcising, at least temporarily, the negative aura of a place that made them seem either inept in routs or incompetent in winnable games frittered away with mistakes.
With a 10-3 pasting of the Astros on Saturday night, almost emptying a packed Minute Maid Park by the eighth inning, the Mariners served notice to the reigning American League West champs and their longtime oppressor that this team and this season aren't like years past.
"Our team has gotten better," manager Scott Servais. "And it continues to get better. I know people get tired of me saying that it doesn't matter, get better. But that's what we've done. It's a credit to our players and our staff. And I think the Astros know we are better, too."
After mustering just two runs and going 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position in a victory Friday night, the Mariners banged out 17 hits, including three homers, two from Dylan Moore, while going 4-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
Rodriguez led the offense — again. In the midst of the hottest stretch of his career, he led off the game with a single to left off Astros starter Framber Valdez, stole second and scored on Eugenio Suarez's single. It set the tone for the rest of the game.
Rodriguez would finish with four hits in six plate appearances, giving him 17 hits in his past four games, which is an MLB record. Milt Stock of the Brooklyn Robins held the previous record of 16 hits in four games, which was set in 1925. Rodriguez also tied Stock's record of four straight games with four-plus hits.
"Wow, 17 hits in four games, I've never seen anything like that and nobody in the history of Major League Baseball has seen anything like it," Servais said. "Julio is just smokin' hot right now and it's fun to watch. Every time he goes up there, he expects to get a hit. We expect to watch him get a hit."
Asked if he'd ever been on this sort of "heater" at the plate in his baseball career, Rodriguez flashed a sheepish grin and said, "I can't remember one, so I guess, no."
With the victory, Seattle secured a series win with a chance for a three-game sweep Sunday. The Mariners also improved to 7-2 vs. the Astros this season, including 5-1 at Minute Maid Park, which means that regardless of the results in the series finale or the three-game series at T-Mobile Park in late September, they have won the overall season series vs. Houston.
They own any tiebreakers over Houston while moving to 1.5 games back of the Astros, who occupy the second wild-card spot. Seattle remains a half-game up over Toronto for the third wild-card spot. But with the Rangers losing, the Mariners are four games back of the division leader.
To those outside of the growing rivalry between the two teams, it might not seem like a big deal. But it is an accomplishment for the Mariners and a sign of growth from the core group of players.
"This is a game of adjustments," Rodriguez said. "I feel like we made a good adjustment. We found a way to compete. We found our way to compete. We're fighting, we're fighting every single day."
The last time the Mariners had a winning record against the Astros for a season was in 2018 when they finished 10-9 in the series.
The following season, the 2019 Mariners, in the first year of their rebuild, went 1-18 against Houston, including 0-10 at Minute Maid. From 2019 to 2022, the Mariners had an 18-49 record against the Astros.
"I think it says a lot, especially tonight putting up all those runs," starter Logan Gilbert said. "It's always been difficult to play here. Everybody knows that, especially the first couple years right when I came up. I feel like last year we made some momentum and gained some ground when we came here. Doing it again this year says a lot, especially at this point in the year."
The Astros didn't react well, with tempers flaring in the fifth inning.
After Dylan Moore crushed a two-run homer to right field that made it 6-2, Valdez fired a 96-mph fastball that hit Jose Caballero in lower left leg on the next pitch. Caballero felt it was on purpose and exchanged words as he walked toward the mound. Valdez cupped his hand to his ear as he walked toward Caballero.
"Caballero reacted a little bit crazy there," Valdez said through an interpreter. "It was a bad pitch. I hit him by mistake. It wasn't intentional. Obviously hit by pitches happen in the game. He reacted a little bit aggressively, so I reacted as well. It's part of the game, things happen."
Benches cleared quickly as home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman blocked Caballero. Rodriguez grabbed Valdez in a bear hug and walked him to second base without much resistance.
"A little bit, but it was just part of the situation," Rodriguez said. "I don't really want to talk about it."
Valdez understood Rodriguez's intentions.
"I think Julio did a good job there," Valdez said. "He was trying to avoid problems. I didn't think there were any problems there. Caballero just reacted the way he did for that hit by pitch. ... Every once in a while, someone is going to get hit. Julio tried avoiding that, but Caballero reacted the way he did."
The incident was mostly just pushing, shoving and jawing. No punches were thrown. But warnings were issued to both dugouts.
"Framber was frustrated from what I saw," Servais said. "Players handle it differently. He was frustrated."
The mutual dislike between the two teams has been there for the past few seasons. There was a notable flare-up in Houston last season when Ty France was hit by a pitch and Rodriguez had a pitch thrown over his head, leading the benches to clear. The tension remained in the games that followed. It carried over into this season with new faces and names.
"I feel like this is my family," Rodriguez said. "I'm not gonna let anybody kind of get between that. I know what it feels to kind of get hit. I remember in 2019 I was taken out for two months. That's not something that you can take lightly. I feel like everybody feels the same way that this is a family, and you protect your family. And that's what we're gonna do. It doesn't matter who it is. It doesn't matter what time it is. We're gonna be out there for each other."
Gilbert gave the Mariners a solid start, despite having pinpoint command but managed to make pitches when needed.
His final line: six innings pitched, two runs allowed on eight hits with a walk and two strikeouts. Both runs came via solo homers.
"Defense played great behind me, I got out of some jams," Gilbert said. "That's the main thing at this level. Find a way to make a pitch when you need to and get out of innings."
In the third inning with the Mariners leading 4-0, Alex Bregman hit a pop fly to left field that carried into the short porch known as the Crawford Boxes. Per MLB Statcast, the ball had a distance of 334 feet and would've only been a homer in one other MLB venue — Fenway Park. He allowed a legit solo homer to Yainer Diaz in the fourth inning.
