HOUSTON — In seasons past, this game would've ended with the Astros wildly celebrating yet another improbable walkoff victory with the Mariners searching for air after another punch to the gut.
The ninth-inning tension of trying to close out a win against their American League West nemesis was simply overwhelming for teams of Mariners past.
When the deafening noise at Minute Maid Park — both real and manufactured — reached earsplitting levels and drama began to build, the mistakes and bad breaks would snowball into defeat with one of the Astros many stars playing the hero.
On Friday night, in the din from 38,060 screaming fans, the Mariners seemed destined for disappointment in the bottom of the ninth.
When Jose Altuve led off with an infield chopper, the uneasiness returned. Seattle failed to turn a sure double play on a ground ball off the bat of Alex Bregman, settling for only one out. The chaos was building. And when Yordan Alvarez reached on a 12-hop infield single, the bad feelings started to return for the Mariners and Andres Munoz.
But instead of bemoaning his bad luck by trying to throw pitches past every hitter, Munoz understood strikes were more important. With one out and runners on the corners, Munoz got Yainer Diaz to overextend on a slider away, resulting in a ground ball up the middle that second baseman Josh Rojas, who had failed to finish the earlier double play, gloved easily, stepped on second base and fired to first for the game-ending double play.
Pending disaster was averted as the Mariners celebrated a 2-0 victory over the Astros.
Never a doubt?
"We play a lot of crazy games here," said manager Scott Servais, who is approaching the moments with a new Zen-like approach. "I've been in so many
of them here that I've kind of gotten over it. I really have. I've taken a different approach and it worked tonight. But it doesn't matter what I'm thinking, it's about the guys on the field. And they did a great job."
Seattle's fourth straight victory pushed their record to 67-55. With Toronto losing 1-0 to the Reds, the Mariners moved a half-game ahead of the Blue Jays and into the third American League wild-card spot.
On June 28, they had lost two of three to the Nationals and had a 38-41 record.
"We don't give up," Julio Rodriguez said. "It doesn't matter what people think or what the odds are, we just don't give up. We show up every day. We keep doing our thing. We stay committed to ourselves, and it's showing now. I feel like that shows the character of this team that we just don't give up and we just keep going forward."
The Mariners rode a solid start from rookie Bryce Miller and solid relief work from Justin Topa and Munoz for their 12th shutout of the season. Rodriguez, as he has for much of the road trip, provided most of the offense tallying four hits, including a solo homer and stealing two bases. Mike Ford also hit a solo homer for Seattle.
In his five plate appearances, the only time he didn't get a hit was when Jeremy Pena dropped a soft liner for an error in the seventh inning.
Rodriguez came into the game with hits in six straight plate appearances. He tied a club record when he notched hits in his first three plate appearances — single, solo homer, single — off Astros starter J.P. France.
Raul Ibanez (2004) and Danny Valencia (2007) also share the record with hits in nine consecutive plate appearances.
"I don't think I did that in Little League," Miller said. "That's pretty cool."
Rodriguez said he might have had nine consecutive hits in his days growing up in Loma De Cabrera in the Dominican Republic but not in professional baseball.
"Definitely grateful for it because we've been working a lot," Rodriguez said. "It's been a lot of ups and downs. But to have a stretch like this and be able to help the team, obviously it's huge, and I'm just grateful that I'm able to do that for the team, especially at this time when we need to win games."
There could have been so much more for Seattle. But they went a stunning 0 for 17 with runners in scoring position, including nine strikeouts and still prevailed.
"That doesn't happen very often," Servais said. "We created opportunities, but couldn't get the big hits."
Miller made the two runs stand up.
Born in Mount Pleasant and pitching for New Braunfels High School, which is little over two and half hours straight west of Houston depending on how fast you drive your pickup, Miller grew up an Astros fan.
With his family and so many friends from high school and college in attendance to see him pitch, he delivered a stellar outing in a place and against a team that have been cruel to rookie pitchers.
"It was super cool," he said. "I haven't been on the mound here since college. Obviously, it's a little different atmosphere than in college. It was a lot of fun. I was glad I was able to go out and perform well."
Using his four-seam and two-seam fastball and staying ahead of Houston hitters, Miller pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing two hits with a walk and two strikeouts. The 33 two-seam fastballs were a career high and needed.
"In the last couple of weeks, I've started to throw it a little more," he said. "I've gotten more comfortable with it. I threw so many four-seam fastballs the first two or three months that hitters are trying to get on top of it. And if there's a lot of righties in the lineup, it's a really good pitch."
He was removed from the game with one out in the seventh inning after Jose Caballero booted a ground ball off the bat of Yainer Diaz. With his pitch count at 82, Miller lobbied Servais unsuccessfully to stay in the game. Justin Topa entered and retired the next two batters with ease.
"I was feeling good," Miller said. "I think the velocity has probably been as good as it's been all year. And I didn't really feel like really anybody at the bottom of the lineup hadn't given me any trouble yet. But it is what it is. Topa came in and did his job and got us out of the inning. So all that matters is we got nine zeros up there and we got the win."
