Recap of the Mariners’ 6-4 win over Houston as if the games had been played in a different order

After struggling to come back from multiple injuries and skids, Bryan Woo led Seattle to a 6-4 victory over Houston today, capping a blistering month of play that saw Seattle stalk and eventually catch the Astros in the standings. Just six weeks ago, the Mariners were ten games behind the Astros, but after a 26-17 loss that coincided with the Astros’ 14-25 collapse, the rivals are now tied for first in the American League West.

Despite being the Astros’ best pitcher during their downfall, Ronel Blanco got beat by the Mariners today. Seattle’s bats, continuing their recent signs of life, regularly made good contact with what counts as Houston’s ace, with nine hard-hit balls and just five strikeouts. As was the case when Seattle faced Blanco earlier this year, back when the season seemed lost, Dylan Moore and Jorge Polanco did the bulk of the damage today. Polanco homered off him for the second time this season, and while DMo had to settle for a triple this time instead of a homer, it was at least a two-run triple that gave the Mariners the lead in the second inning. They’ll never relinquish that lead.

That was largely due to a stellar performance from Bryan Woo, who hit 77 percent fastballs to power through Houston’s faltering lineup. The highlight was striking out all three batters in the third inning.

In five innings, Woo had struck out five, walked no batters and allowed just two hits. Both of those hits came from Yordan Álvarez, including a majestic moonsault that just missed the third tier of the right-field bleachers. Yordan may have only put up a mere 118 wRC+ on the Astros’ slide, but he’s still Yordan Álvarez after all.

In the sixth inning, a weak hit went just wide and a blown bunt unfairly gave the Astros runners on the corners with no outs, a reversal of the incredible luck the Mariners have enjoyed of late. But JP Crawford made up for it by doing a masterful job of selling his attempt to catch a batted ball that came off his glove to set up a double play.

With Yordan supposed to be on the field and Woo having thrown 73 pitches, Woo was replaced by Tayler Saucedo. Sauce left a ball in the middle of the plate that Yordan sent into the left-center wall. Somehow, because he is an incredible athlete, Julio Rodriguez managed to get there. But he hit the wall at full speed, appearing to hyperflex his ankle. He dropped the ball and was on the ground for an excruciatingly long time.

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He eventually made it back to the dugout on his own and X-rays came back negative. He’ll have an MRI and for now, the Mariners are calling it a “sprained ankle” and giving him “day to day.” We’ll see how long that lasts. Kate reports seeing him in the locker room walking around with what she described as “only a slight limp,” and no boot or cast. With the wind finally at their backs, it couldn’t be a worse time to lose Julio, but it looks like they just avoided the worst-case scenario. We’ll keep you updated on how things develop, of course.

Regardless, the official scorer decided to award Yordan a triple for that. And while an error seems equally unacceptable, it’s a good example of my proposed rule change that some bases should be awarded on a “no-fault” basis, where there’s no error but the batter isn’t credited with a hit. The bunt with a broken bat earlier would be another example. (Yordan would eventually get the double to complete the second cycle in T-Mobile Park history, but we’ll remember that one as a formality rather than an accomplishment.)

Things could have gotten out of hand quickly, but the Mariners have been doing well lately and they managed to get out of the inning with a 3-2 lead. Polanco continued to hit hard against Blanco, chasing him after another single. It’s hard not to appreciate the rough patch Houston’s rotation is going through right now, with Blanco’s poor outing today pushing their ERA up to 5.44 this stretch.

The Astros bullpen then continued its terrible, horrible, no good, very bad month with Seth Martinez allowing a Luke-Lear hit that put the game out of reach.

By the time the ninth inning began, the game seemed well in hand. And yet, this was Andrés Muñoz’s first appearance since he was so rudely denied the opportunity to pitch in the All-Star Game. And all he did was prove exactly why he deserved his Midsummer Classic selection, striking out all three batters he faced with six strikeouts in seven swings. That earns him today’s Sun Hat Award, albeit in a close win over Victor Robles, who had a few more hits and a stolen base today. It’s hard not to attribute all of this success to the arrival of Robles, who provided the spark the Mariners needed to move into a tie for first place and boost their FanGraphs playoff odds to over 50 percent for the first time since early April.

There’s no need to get discouraged given what the Mariners have just accomplished, but it’s important to remember that the situation can change at any moment. The Astros could regain their momentum, and the Mariners could lose theirs. There’s more than one way to end up five games over .500, and the situation ahead doesn’t care about the recent run of good times.

It’s obviously a moment to savor, even though no one seems to have a problem with it. But it’s a long season, so I try to keep my head in the good times and the bad. The computer at FanGraphs says the Mariners have a better chance of making the playoffs than not, and that’s a good thing, whether we got there one way or another.