Out of Right Field: Recap, takeaways from the Seattle Mariners’ 14-1 win over the Houston Astros
Domingo Santana, Tom Murphy and Edwin Encarnacion hit homers in a seven-run sixth inning as the Seattle Mariners defeated the visiting Houston Astros 14-1 Wednesday night to snap a four-game losing streak.
Right-hander Mike Leake (5-6) pitched Seattle’s first complete game of the season, allowing six hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
Pinch-hitter Mac Williamson, making his Seattle debut, added a three-run homer and Kyle Seager had a solo shot, both in the eighth, as the Mariners ended Houston’s five-game winning streak and beat the Astros for the first time in six tries this season.
Astros right-hander Brad Peacock (5-3) allowed only one hit through four scoreless innings before running into trouble in the fifth.
Trailing 1-0, Seager led off with a walk and Santana grounded a single to center. Shed Long then lined a single to right, with Seager held at third to load the bases with no outs.
It appeared Peacock might get out of the jam when he struck out Murphy and got Dylan Moore to hit a chopper to third, with Alex Bregman forcing out Seager at the plate. But Mallex Smith lined the next pitch into right field for a two-run single to give the Mariners the lead.
Peacock (5-3) went five innings, allowing two runs on four hits. He walked two and struck out six.
The Mariners teed off on Astros relievers Reymin Guduan and Brady Rodgers in the sixth.
Daniel Vogelbach led off with a walk and, an out later, Santana hit a two-run shot to right-center field. After Long grounded a single to center, Rodgers replaced Guduan. Murphy hit Rodgers’ first pitch over the left-field wall to give the Mariners a 6-1 lead. Moore and Smith singled and, with two outs, Encarnacion hit a three-run blast into the second deck in left field. It was Encarnacion’s team-leading 17th homer of the season and the 397th of his 15-year career.
The Mariners capped the scoring with a five-run eighth. Astros first baseman Tyler White pitched the final two-thirds of the inning, allowing Seager’s home run.
Of note
The M’s injured list keeps growing. Rookie OF Braden Bishop, recalled Sunday from Tacoma, left Tuesday night’s game in the fourth inning with dizziness and intense pain in his left shoulder. The injury was originally believed to be a cramp in his trapezius muscle, but further tests showed he had a lacerated spleen. Bishop was hit by a pitch in the ribs last weekend with the Rainiers, but it’s not certain if that’s what caused the injury. … OF Mac Williamson was signed to a minor-league contract and selected from Triple-A Tacoma to replace Bishop on the roster. Williamson, a third-round draft pick in 2012, played parts of each of the past five seasons with the San Francisco Giants. In 15 games this year, he batted .118 with one HR and seven RBIs. … The M’s also activated RHP Gerson Bautista, out since spring training with a right pectoralis strain, from the 60-day IL and sent RHP Andrew Moore, who started Tuesday’s game, back to Double-A Arkansas. … LHP Yusei Kikuchi is scheduled to return to the rotation Saturday in Anaheim after having his last start skipped.
By the numbers
442: Estimated distance in feet of Encarnacion’s blast, the team’s longest measured HR this season. MLB’s distance tracker wasn’t working the night Vogelbach became the first M’s player to hit a ball into T-Mobile Park’s upper deck in right field.
Our take from Right Field
Oh, so that’s what a lopsided win feels like. Leake did a masterful job keeping the M’s in the game until they broke out the big bats.
Up next
The M’s conclude their four-game series against the Houston Astros at 12:40 p.m. Thursday at T-Mobile Park. LHP Tommy Milone (1-1, 3.60 ERA) is set to face Astros RHP Justin Verlander (9-2, 2.27).