Rookie Cole Young singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Houston Astros 7-6 on Saturday night.
With Dominic Canzone the runner at second to start the inning, Miles Mastrobuoni put down a sacrifice bunt to move Canzone to third. Young lined a single down the right field line off Houston’s Hector Neris (3-2) to win it.
Seattle’s Eduard Bazardo (4-0) pitched a scoreless 11th to get the victory.
The Mariners won their fifth consecutive game and sent the Astros to their seventh loss in the past eight games.
Both teams scored in the 10th. Houston pinch hitter Taylor Trammell’s sacrifice fly brought home the go-ahead run in the top of the inning. The Mariners tied it in the bottom half as Cal Raleigh scored from third on a fluke groundout off the knob of Dylan Moore’s bat.
The Astros rallied from a 4-1 deficit. They began their comeback in the fifth as Jose Altuve led off with a double down the left field line and Victor Caratini drew a walk, ending the night for Mariners starter Logan Evans. Reliever Carlos Vargas got Cam Smith to ground into a double play, but Christian Walker grounded a single to right to score Altuve.
Houston took the lead with a three-run sixth. With one out, Vargas hit both Brice Matthews and Zack Short with pitches, angering the Astros’ bench and drawing a warning from the umpiring crew. Altuve singled on a hard grounder that deflected off third baseman Ben Williamson and into shallow left field, with Matthews scoring on the play. Gabe Speier replaced Vargas and Caratini greeted him with a grounder up the middle, scoring Short. After Smith flew out to center, Walker grounded a single to right to make it 5-4.
Seattle tied it in the eighth off Bryan Abreu. Randy Arozarena led off with a hustle double to left and advanced to third on a flyout to right by Jorge Polanco. With two outs, Arozarena raced home on a wild pitch to make it 5-5.
The Mariners opened the scoring in the second inning as Polanco and Luke Raley drew one-out walks, Canzone was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Williamson hit a chopper back to the mound, with Lance McCullers Jr.’s only play to first.
Isaac Paredes led off the third with a single, but he had to leave the game with a hamstring injury. With one out, Caratini and Smith singled, with pinch runner Short scoring on the latter hit.
The Mariners scored three times in the bottom of the inning to regain the lead. Julio Rodriguez led off with a single before being forced out at second on a grounder by Arozarena. With two outs, Polanco lined a singled to center, sending Arozarena to third, and Luke Raley grounded a run-scoring single to right. Canzone hit a two-run double into the gap in left-center to make it 4-1.
–Field Level Media
