SEATTLE -- Understanding the gravity of every win or loss in the final week of the season, Astros manager Joe Espada squeezed every ounce out of his beleaguered pitching staff Wednesday night. So much so that he pushed closer Josh Hader for 44 pitches to try to close out a win that would have put the Astros in the driver’s seat in the wacky American League West.
Perhaps it’s only fitting that the race in a division in which no team has been able to pull away won’t be decided until the final weekend. With the Rangers losing earlier in the day, the Astros blew a four-run lead and a chance to seize control of the AL West when the Mariners rallied for two runs off Hader in the 10th inning to beat Houston, 6-5, at T-Mobile Park.
“Tough one,” Espada said. “We used our entire arsenal there trying to get through that one. Tough loss. But we've got another one tomorrow.”
The Astros and Rangers are both 78-80 with four games remaining in the regular season. Houston owns the tiebreaker over Texas, so the Astros still control their own destiny heading into a four-game series at the 95-loss A’s in West Sacramento. The Rangers finish a series against the Mets on Thursday afternoon in Arlington before traveling to Minnesota to face the Twins for the final three games.
“Any time we can get ahead by a game, that’s what you want,” Hader said. “We came into this road trip trying to win them all. It sucks that we lost this one and how we did, but we’ve still got to play four more games. We’ve got to play good baseball and finish out strong. We’ve still got the tiebreaker and that’s fortunate for us, but we can’t bank on that. We’ve got to win out and hopefully we look up and we’re in the playoffs.”
An RBI triple in the 10th by catcher Yainer Diaz put the Astros ahead, 5-4, and Hader came back out in the bottom of the inning after throwing 19 pitches in the ninth. He was pitching for the first time since Thursday, so he had five days off and was rested.
Hader walked three of the four batters he faced in the 10th, including Julio Rodríguez with the bases loaded to force in the tying run. Josh Naylor won it with an RBI single to center field. The 44 pitches by Hader are tied for the fifth most of his career, and his most since Aug. 9, 2019, when he was with the Brewers.
“The stuff was really good,” Espada said. “They fouled some tough pitches off, they really made him work. The slider was there, the sinker was good -- up to 96 [mph] -- but they just put some really good at-bats against him and made him work.”
The Mariners laid off Hader’s sinker above the strike zone and fouled off 11 of his 44 pitches, whiffing at only five.
“Even in the [ninth], I was around the zone but not in the zone all the way,” he said. “They made me work in that inning, too. I got a fortunate pickoff [in the ninth], but I think I’ve got to be in the zone more. Obviously in the 10th, you don’t want to be in the zone to give up a hit, but you’re not doing yourself good if they’re not swinging at the ones out of the zone.”
One night after starter Cristian Javier left Tuesday’s game after two innings with a groin strain, forcing the bullpen to cover seven innings, Houston patched together its first seven innings Wednesday with rookie arms: Ethan Pecko (2 2/3 innings), Josh Hendrickson (two innings), Logan VanWey (one-third) and AJ Blubaugh (two innings). Their three high-leverage relievers took it from there.
The Astros, playing without starting shortstop Jeremy Peña (forearm) and starting center fielder Daulton Varsho (wrist), jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the third on an RBI single by Jose Altuve, an RBI double by Yordan Alvarez and a two-run homer by Diaz.
Seattle got three of those runs back in the bottom of the inning off Pecko, including a two-run single by Dominic Cazone, who then tied the game in the fifth with an RBI single.
“Honestly, we played a good game,” first baseman Christian Walker said. “They edged it out right at the end, but we played a really good game. Proud of that performance. That’s a really good pitching staff, so to put up some runs and give ourselves a chance to win, that’s all we can ask. They scored some runs off of our guy; that’s all it is. But I think there’s definitely some momentum from this series to take with us to Sacramento to finish strong.”