Mariners see win streak end at 14 games, one victory short of team record

SEATTLE – The stage was set Friday for one of the most enjoyable nights in recent Mariner history.

A sellout crowd of 45,290 was on hand at T-Mobile Park – the first since opening day – on a glorious summer evening to see if the Mariners could tie a team record with a 15th consecutive win against AL West rival Houston while also celebrating the unveiling of the 2023 All-Star Game logo and honoring their own two All-Stars from earlier this week, Julio Rodriguez and Ty France.

The Mariners even brought back Bret Boone and Mike Cameron – members of the All-Star team the last time the game was held in Seattle in 2001 – to throw out the ceremonial first pitches to France and Rodriguez.

But it was mostly downhill from the moment Cameron and Boone exited stage right as Houston hit three home runs in beating the Mariners 5-2 to snap their winning streak at 14, one shy of the record held by the 2001 Boone-Cameron-led squad.

Things, in fact, turned even before the game began when it was announced shortly before the real first pitch Rodriguez was being scratched due to what the team called left wrist soreness.

There was no additional word on the injury or its severity, though the fact Rodriguez was in uniform and smiling during the pregame ceremonies seemed at least somewhat promising initially.

Almost before the news about Rodriguez had sunk in, Houston leadoff hitter Jose Altuve hit the third pitch of the game from Marco Gonzalez 422 feet over the center-field wall for a home run and a lead the Astros never relinquished despite a valiant Mariners effort in the eighth inning to make it a game that was vanquished by a marvelous defensive play by Houston shortstop Jeremy Pena.

Trailing 5-1, the Mariners loaded the bases with one out off reliever Phil Maton. That brought on Ryne Stanek, who entered the game with the best current scoreless innings streak in MLB at 26⅓ innings.

Eugenio Suarez drew walk on a bases-loaded count after falling behind 0-2 brought in one run. Kyle Lewis, in his first game since May 28 when he suffered a concussion when hit by a pitch by Houston’s Jose Urquidy – who started Friday night – followed with a hard shot up the middle that initially appeared as if it might bring in two more before Pena leapt to snare it.

Cal Raleigh followed with a strikeout and the threat ended there with the Mariners ultimately falling to 51-43.

The Mariners’ only other run came on a solo homer by Ty France in the sixth off Urquidy, who otherwise allowed the Mariners little.

The performance marked a turnabout for Urquidy, who entered the game 8-1 against the rest of the Major Leagues but 0-3 against the Mariners, giving up 27 hits and 15 earned runs in 13 innings.

This time, Urquidy allowed just four hits and one run in six innings.

Along with Altuve’s homer, Yordan Alvarez in the fourth and Martin Maldonado in the fifth also went deep against Gonzalez, the second time this year he had allowed three home runs – the other coming in his first start of the season at Minnesota on April 10 when he lasted just two innings.

The Astros also got a sacrifice fly from Alvarez in the fifth and an RBI-single from Jake Meyers in the sixth to pad the lead.The 14-game winning streak and stretches of going 17-1 in their past 18 and 22-3 in their past 25 led to brisk ticket sales for this three-game series against the AL West leading Astros – that Friday was also one of the team’s seven fireworks shows this season also probably didn’t hurt.

All three marks were the best since the famous 2001 season, in which the Mariners won 116 games, with a chance to improve on each with Boone and Cameron on hand.

Instead, the Mariners will now have to win one of the next two games against the Astros this weekend to avoid also seeing their streak of eight straight series wins snapped, also the longest since 2001.

All of that might lead some to wonder if the Mariners lost some of their, well, mojo during the All-Star break

But as Servais noted before the game, no baseball team is going to win them all.

And while the Mariners have been one of the hottest teams in baseball the last month, so has Houston – the Astros are now 26-9 since June 12, the best in MLB.M’s manager Scott Servais before the game resisted the idea that the All-Star break might halt the team’s momentum, noting that the players – and especially a bullpen that had put in a lot of work during the winning streak – would benefit from the rest.

“I don’t think any of us wanted to quit playing at that point because we’re going so good,” Servais said. “But you know we ran our bullpen really hard in the last series in Texas. Guys needed a blow. … I think it came at the right time.”