Houston hands Mariners sixth straight loss - and fourth by one run - 3-2

SEATTLE – The Limp to the Finish Tour returned Monday night to Safeco Field when the Seattle Mariners opened their final homestand with a 3-2 loss to the Houston Astros.

That makes six losses in a row.

Just five more games to go.

And four of those six losses were by one run.

Yep, the Mariners are counting it down.

Houston broke a 2-2 tie on Chris Carter’s booming two-out homer in the seventh inning against reliever Danny Farquhar, who served up a walk-off homer to David Freese on Saturday at Anaheim in his previous outing.

When Mark Trumbo opened the bottom of the inning with a walk, the Astros replaced starter Lance McCullers (6-7) with lefty Tony Sipp while James Jones went in to run for Trumbo.

Sipp picked off Jones, who was in no-man’s land when Sipp threw to first. It continued a trend: The Mariners ran themselves into three outs Sunday in a 3-2 loss to the Angels.

Houston had a chance to extend its lead when it loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth inning, but Tony Zych struck out Jed Lowrie. The Astros also left runners at the corners in the ninth.

It didn’t matter. Houston’s bullpen, so combustible in recent games, protected the one-run lead. Oliver Perez and Luke Gregerson combined for a scoreless ninth. Gregerson got his 30th save.

Mariners lefty Roenis Elias recovered from a loud first inning, when he surrendered two homers, by allowing nothing further in pitching through the sixth inning and handing a 2-2 game to Farquhar (1-6).

The victory enabled Houston to close to within 1 1/2 games of first-place Texas in the American League West while simultaneously maintaining a slender lead in the race for the A.L.’s final wild-card berth.

The Astros maintained a one-half game lead over Los Angeles in the wild-card race. The Angels beat Oakland 5-4 in Anaheim.

Elias opened the game by surrendering some real estate. Jose Altuve sent a 351-foot drive to left for a long out before George Springer parked a 402-foot drive over the right-center wall for a 1-0 lead.

After Carlos Correa grounded out, Evan Gattis crushed a 2-1 change-up for a 413-foot homer to left that cleared the scoreboard above the bullpens.

The Mariners got one run back in their first with considerably less muscle. Kyle Seager drew a one-out walk and came around on two-out ground singles by Robinson Cano and Trumbo. Cano’s single extended his hitting streak to 11 games.

Two nice plays by first baseman Logan Morrison helped the Mariners stay within one run in the sixth.

First, he turned a low liner into a double play. Next, he dug out a low throw from shortstop Ketel Marte for the third out.

Marte then opened the bottom of the inning with a no-doubt homer to right – the second homer of his career, and his second in three days. The game was tied.

Paxton Update

Manager Lloyd McClendon all but ruled out lefty James Paxton – “highly unlikely” – to start Wednesday against the Astros because of a torn nail on his middle finger suffered Sept. 24 at Kansas City.

That positions right-hander Mayckol Guaipe or lefty David Rollins as the likely starters before other relievers close out the game. Guaipe has pitched two or more innings in six of his 17 relief appearances; Rollins has done so in four of his 19 outings.

McClendon rated Paxton as “a 50-50 chance” to pitch again before the season ends.