HOUSTON -- The season is reaching the stage where the Mariners will need to start stacking wins in ways they haven’t all year if they have any hopes of playing into October.
Yet conversely, they’re trying to take a more insular approach in order to manifest that objective.
“It's more just the time of year where we're at right now,” manager Dan Wilson said at the outset of this huge showdown against the Astros. “And people start talking about what's left and looking at series, and you can kind of get lost in that instead of focusing on what's right in front of you. Baseball is a game of ‘What have you done for me lately?’ And right now, that's tonight's game.”
The one-day-at-a-time mantra is one of the most common clichés in this game, but that’s where Seattle sits. And after one of their more stinging losses in this summer-long spiral the night prior, the Mariners rebounded in a big way on Saturday at Daikin Park -- cruising to a commanding 10-5 win over the Astros.
“It was just like a complete game, from start to finish,” said Brendan Donovan, who had three RBI singles in his return to the leadoff spot.
It was equally well-rounded, too, as Seattle (58-66) defeated Houston (63-61) for the eighth time in 10 meetings this season. The Mariners are now five games back in the American League West with 38 to play.
At the plate, they worked counts, strung together multihit rallies and were aggressive on the basepaths.
The Mariners have relied so heavily on the long ball this season, with 49.8% of their runs via clearing the fence, the highest in MLB. But aside from Cole Young’s big blast in the ninth, Seattle had 14 other hits on Saturday.
“Sometimes, you can forget how important a single is,” Young said. “Just putting pressure on the defense and like -- whether it's a walk or a single -- just getting on base, I think it just shows how important it is. It builds up the energy in the dugout, because hitting is so contagious.”
Young was also at the center of the night’s highlight, which came via Victor Robles’ triple as part of a four-run second inning. Unsure if the ball would drop in deep right-center, Young didn’t get on his wheels until late -- which brought him to Josh Naylor’s heels upon scoring, when he slid between the slugger’s legs upon crossing the plate.
“He was far enough from the plate where I was able to slide and finagle myself to not take his legs out,” Young said of Naylor, later adding: “It didn't cross my mind until I slid. I'm like, ‘Oh [expletive], he's right there.’”
On the mound -- Emerson Hancock escaped a bases-loaded jam in the first inning that put Houston on the board and cleared the seventh, at one point retiring 12 straight. It turned around the rotation-wide road woes, as that group carried a 6.83 ERA since the All-Star break away from T-Mobile Park.
Hancock needed 23 pitches to get through the first, when he issued a four-pitch walk to Yordan Alvarez, then three straight one-out singles that led to a run before getting out of it. But he surrendered just two hits and one walk the rest of the way.
“That was a huge win for us,” Hancock said. “And it took everyone.”
In the field, a few nifty plays bailed them out of brewing jams, headlined by Hancock’s pickoff to shortstop Brock Rodden to cap the right-hander’s outing. The daylight play was actually sparked by Cal Raleigh during a mound visit just a few moments prior.
“That's a huge out,” Hancock said. “And again, like I talked about, when you feel like some momentum is going, to be able to stop it right there and get to the eighth was huge for us.”
Rodden also ignited a double play in the third, made an 86.8 mph putout on a tough second-chance grounder in the fourth and retired Yordan Alvarez on a late-hopping chopper to the right of second base in the eighth.
Nights like these have been rare for the Mariners, who, when they have excelled, have done so in just one or maybe two categories but not in the complete. For their sake, they hope it was also a sign of things to come.