SEATTLE -- A chance to move a game ahead of the Rangers in the American League West eluded the Astros on Wednesday night.
The Mariners scored twice in the 10th inning off Astros reliever Josh Hader on a one-out bases-loaded walk to Julio Rodríguez that tied the game and was followed by a walk-off single by Josh Naylor to give Seattle a 6-5 win over the Astros at T-Mobile Park.
The Astros and Rangers both lost Wednesday, leaving them with identical 78-80 records with four games remaining in the regular season. Houston owns the tiebreaker over Texas, so the Astros still control their own destiny heading into a four-game series at the 95-loss A’s.
The Rangers finish their series against the Mets on Thursday afternoon in Arlington before traveling to Minnesota to face the Twins for the final three games of the regular season.
One night after starter Cristian Javier left Tuesday’s game after two innings with a groin strain, forcing the bullpen to cover seven innings, Houston patched together its first seven innings Wednesday with rookie arms: Ethan Pecko (2 2/3 innings), Josh Hendrickson (two innings), Logan VanWey (one-third) and AJ Blubaugh (two innings).
The Astros jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third inning on an RBI single by Jose Altuve, an RBI double by Yordan Alvarez and a two-run homer by Yainer Diaz. Seattle got three of those runs back in the bottom of the inning off Pecko, including a two-run single by Dominic Cazone, who then tied the game in the fifth with an RBI single.