Dan Wilson ejected, Seattle Mariners lose to Astros on walkoff home run
HOUSTON – Dan Wilson’s first ejection at any point of his career as a player or now a manager came just in time to avoid seeing the Astros torment the Mariners with another walk-off homer in Houston.
Jose Altuve opened the ninth inning with a single and Christian Walker followed with a two-run homer into the Crawford Boxes to give the Astros a 5-3 win over the Mariners on Sunday afternoon at Daikin Park and take three of four games in the weekend series.
Altuve led off the bottom of the ninth with a line drive over the head of J.P. Crawford at shortstop, and Walker lined an 0-2 pitch from Casey Legumina into the left-field seats to set off the wild celebration.
By that point, Wilson was in the clubhouse after being tossed by home plate umpire Laz Diaz between the top and the bottom of the ninth. Wilson came out after Randy Arozarena was upset with a called third strike from Diaz for the final out in the top of the ninth. It was an obvious strike and Wilson’s ejection appeared more about protecting Arozarena and keeping him in a game that lasted all of seven more pitches.
“Can’t argue balls and strikes. So that was that,” Wilson said. “I think these guys they fight hard and their at-bats are so good. All the way through the day just really good at-bats. And so you feel for them a little bit and you feel some of their frustration. It was just a tough one today.”
And it was a painful end to a road trip that started with so much promise.
The M’s finished off their 10-game road trip with a winning mark, going 6-4. But it will feel rather hollow after sweeping San Diego and taking two of three from the lowly White Sox before stumbling in Houston. Losing three of four – including the last two in narrow fashion – left the M’s with just a 1½-game lead over the Astros in the division.
“Always tough to get walked off. But don’t want that to overshadow a good road trip here by our guys,” Wilson said. “It was a long trip and they played well throughout the entire trip. I thought today was just a tough way to end it.”
Seattle jumped out to a 2-0 lead thanks to Mitch Garver’s two-out, two-run double in the first inning. Garver’s double was only his third extra-base hit of the season and the first for him since homering off a position player on April 26 in a 14-0 win over Miami. In the 17 games he appeared in since, Garver was 8 for 37 at the plate with all eight hits being singles.
What made the double even more unexpected was it came on an 0-2 pitch. Astros starter Colton Gordon threw a sweeper for a called strike on the second pitch, then came back with another in nearly the same spot.
Garver didn’t miss and both Julio Rodríguez and Arozarena scored.
Rodríguez was at the center of the M’s stretching the lead to 3-0 in the third after leading off with his second hit. The M’s were gifted a free 180 feet as Rodríguez advanced to second on a passed ball and darted to third on a wild pitch, and he jogged home from third on Donovan Solano’s base hit.
It was the first RBI for Solano since April 17 in Cincinnati and capped a two-game weekend span where Solano was in the starting lineup for both games and had three hits and a walk in six plate appearances over the two games.
But the Mariners failed to score from there and in each of the three losses in the series didn’t score after the third inning.
The M’s missed a chance to take the lead in the seventh inning when Cal Raleigh walked and Rodríguez doubled, both with two outs. Arozarena chased a 3-2 fastball off the plate from Kaleb Ort for the final out of the inning.
J.P. Crawford was also thrown out at the plate in the eighth on an infield ground ball from Ben Williamson that should have been a double play rather than a play at home.
“I thought we did a good job of creating some traffic and just weren’t able to get them in,” Wilson said. “That’s really what it boils down to. I don’t know that you point to anything in particular.”
M’s starter Luis Castillo also faced traffic all day but still managed to get through six innings allowing three runs on nine hits and struck out six.
The last hit, though, was the one that ended up pulling the Astros even. With Jake Meyers running on the pitch, Cam Smith dumped a double down the right-field line. Meyers was able to score without a throw and pulled the Astros level at 3-3.
The double came on Castillo’s 106th pitch of the game and while he eventually struck out Mauricio Dubon to end his outing it was a stressful afternoon for Castillo.
He finished with 114 pitches, the most by any Mariners pitcher since Castillo threw 115 in August 2022 against Cleveland in just his fifth start after getting traded from Cincinnati. His career-high was 123 pitches earlier in the 2022 season while still with the Reds.
“I feel good. I mean, I think that’s (what) we train for, that’s why we work. It’s how we train our bodies, our arms,” Castillo said via interpreter Freddy Llanos. “But unfortunately, we didn’t get the win today. But I feel good.”
The M’s bullpen wiggled out of jams in both the seventh and eighth innings to keep the game tied into the ninth.
Leo Rivas made a diving stop on Walker’s grounder with one out in the seventh that while it loaded the bases and an out wasn’t recorded, his dive kept the single from reaching the outfield. Carlos Vargas then got Victor Caratini to ground into a double play to get out of one jam.
In the eighth, Matt Brash entered with two outs and eventually got Isaac Paredes to into a force out with the bases loaded to end the inning. But with Brash still in the early stages of his return from Tommy John surgery and Andrés Muñoz seemingly down for the day, Legumina was given the ball for the ninth.
“We were good with (Brash) getting us out of that inning and making sure that we got a chance to hit and try to take the lead,” Wilson said.