M’s done in by Astros’ home runs

HOUSTON – An opportunity to surge to the front of the wild card standings beckoned Saturday night to the Mariners after the results elsewhere from earlier in the day. So how did that go? The Mariners, by the fourth inning, had demoted starter Erasmo Ramirez toiling in mop-up duty as a reliever. So not well. The Houston Astros rocked Chris Young for four homers in three-plus innings and rolled to a 10-1 victory at Minute Maid Park. “I didn’t pitch as well as I’m capable,” Young said. “I’m disappointed. I felt good going in. I don’t know what happened. I just didn’t make good pitches.” Young surrendered two-run blasts in the first inning to Chris Carter and Alex Presley before exiting after Matt Dominguez and Chris Corporan started the fourth inning with successive bombs. The four-run first was plenty for Houston starter Dallas Keuchel, whom Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon labeled as having “average stuff” after a May 25 complete game in which he gave up one unearned run. The jibe, likely, was aimed more at the Mariners at the time as a motivational ploy. If so, it had no effect this time around. Keuchel (12-9) gave up just one run in eight innings. “Everybody was up in a huff about what I said last time,” McClendon said, “but I wasn’t trying to downplay the kid. He’s got average stuff, but he knows how to pitch. In contrast, Young (12-9) is now winless in his last five starts after positioning himself as strong comeback-player-of-the-year candidate through the season’s first four-plus months. Young is slotted to make his final regular-season start Thursday in Toronto. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned,” McClendon said. “Fact is, we’re in the home stretch right now. What do you do? He’s a veteran guy and says he feels good. Tonight, it just didn’t come out very well.” Asked if Young will pitch Thursday, McClendon said: “As we speak right now, yes.” The loss kept the Mariners (83-71) from pulling even with Oakland (84-70) for the American League’s top Wild Card spot. Since the Mariners own the tiebreaker advantage, they would have led the A’s on that basis. Instead, the Mariners remained one-half game behind Kansas City (83-70) for the second and final wild card berth.