JP Crawford hits a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning to lift the Mariners past Astros, 2-1

SEATTLE (AP) — JP Crawford drove in Jonatan Clase with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Seattle Mariners a 2-1 victory over the Houston Astros on Wednesday night.

A pitching-dominated game ended with Crawford heaving a fly ball into deep right field, allowing Clase to race home and give the Mariners wins in the first three games of the four-game series with their AL West rival.

The winning run came after a dominant start from Houston’s Justin Verlander and Seattle’s George Kirby. Verlander allowed one run, three hits and struck out nine in seven innings; Kirby allowed one run, six hits and struck out eight in six innings.

“It’s as good as it gets in this league, any league, Verlander and George coming and going,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “It was fun to watch when George was there. It wasn’t that fun to watch when Verlander was there. It was one of those games where you have to find a way out.

The bullpens were just as strong. Trent Thornton, Gabe Speier, Austin Voth and Andrés Muñoz allowed a baserunner with six strikeouts in three innings. Mike Baumann (2-0) retired the Astros in order in the top of the 10th on two fly outs and Jose Altuve’s groundout.

But Houston’s Tayler Scott (1-2) couldn’t find the same success. Dominic Canzone grounded out to second base to open the 10th, allowing Clase – the automatic runner – to advance to third. Cal Raleigh and Luke Raley walked to load the bases and Crawford made an 0-1 throw deep enough for Clase to score.

“Finish the game, get the job done and let’s go home,” Crawford said. “Get a good pitch, don’t miss it. And luckily I didn’t miss it.

Seattle missed a chance to win in the ninth, but Julio Rodríguez found himself stranded at third base after Josh Hader struck out Ryan Bliss and Mitch Haniger.

Verlander was nearly perfect, allowing just Canzone’s fifth home run of the season with one out in the fifth inning. Canzone’s homer was his second since coming off the injured list two weeks ago and traveled about 408 feet on a cold night when the ball was having trouble being carried.

Verlander has pitched at least seven innings in five straight outings against the Mariners in the regular season dating back to the 2022 season.

“They have an exceptional rotation, a good bullpen. You know it’s going to be a close game,” Verlander said. “If you think you’re going to come here and score five, six, seven points a game, I don’t think that’s realistic.”

Kirby gave up Jake Meyers’ RBI single in the fourth inning, but that was all the Astros could manage.

Kirby struck out eight and pitched at least six innings for the sixth time in seven starts. He allowed 11 earned runs, on 42 strikeouts and walked just three batters in 36 1/3 innings in six home starts this season.

One of the keys for Kirby was hitting his off-speed throws early in the game. He also escaped a jam in the sixth, leaving the runners stranded in the turns.

“They are aggressive and must just make them feel uncomfortable. I used a lot of different off-speeds tonight, I thought it worked really well,” Kirby said.

TRAINERS ROOM

Astros: Manager Joe Espada said RHPs Cristian Javier and José Urquidy are both receiving additional notices about discomfort in their right forearms.

FOLLOWING

Astros: RHP Spencer Arrighetti (2-5, 6.93) allowed three runs in five innings and suffered the loss in his last start against Oakland. Arrighetti never pitched against Seattle.

Mariners: RHP Logan Gilbert (3-2, 3.06) pitched eight shutout innings against the Astros on May 4 in Houston. Gilbert has allowed three or fewer earned runs in nine of 11 starts this season.

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