HOUSTON -- Given the stakes of where they sit in both the standings and calendar, as well as the opponent and venue, it wouldn’t be a stretch to call this the Mariners’ most monumental game of the season.
And the tense atmosphere within this Sunday Night Baseball environment lived up to it -- headlined by a “here we go again” scare at the very end.
With everyone at Daikin Park on the edge of their seats, the Mariners held on to a 3-2 win over the Astros to take this three-game series.
And it nearly came completely undone in a bases-loaded jam in the eighth inning that had House of Horrors written all over it.
“Only in Houston would something like that happen,” said Cal Raleigh, as Seattle (59-66) pulled to within four games of Houston (63-62) for first place in the American League West.
Seranthony Domínguez struck out Daulton Varsho to silence a hostile crowd, just after Varsho hooked one narrowly foul that could’ve been a dagger. But anxiety reached a peak level in the at-bat prior, when Domínguez was summoned to face Jose Altuve but tripped going back on what would’ve been a routine popup to Cole Young.
That’s when things got extremely dicey, in a venue where the Mariners have suffered some of their most stinging losses of this era -- and as recently as Friday’s walk-off loss.
“We always play the craziest games here,” Raleigh said. “But give [Domínguez] credit. He did his job. He got it done. Something crazy happens, and he's able to collect himself and bring himself back into the moment.”
Andrés Muñoz wound up closing things out in the ninth, two days removed from surrendering five earned runs in that walk-off loss that was shaping up to be a gut-check win. Muñoz has only once this season pitched more than one inning -- in an Aug. 1 win over Minnesota.
But manager Dan Wilson said postgame that he held off on Muñoz until the ninth due to his 23-pitch, high-stress workload on Friday. And the whole thing worked out, as the two-time All-Star picked up his 100th career save.
“I didn't do anything wrong, it was just part of the game,” Muñoz said of Friday. “They were better than me that day. But that gave me the confidence to just go back there, go back out there, and try to do the same thing. And that was basically what I did.”
If this weekend had a theme, it’d be “rebound.”
Had the Mariners won Friday’s game, it would’ve been one of their more impressive and methodical comebacks of the second half. They responded on Saturday by putting together their most well-rounded win in the same stretch, if not the entire year.
And on Sunday, they hung on in a game that we’ve seen countless times get away from them.
“It says a lot about the group,” said Bryan Woo, who surrendered two solo homers but only one additional hit over six innings. “It says a lot about where we're going. And I think, like I said, if there's any place for us to get going, it's certainly here.”
There were countless individual rebounds, too -- and beyond Muñoz.
Woo, whose stark home/road splits have defined his season, put the club in position to win with one of his grittier efforts, packed with emotion at the very end.
He surrendered a homer to No. 9 hitter Nick Allen to lead off the sixth inning, spitting in disgust after falling behind in a 1-0 count. Then, once he cleared the frame, from a popout to Altuve in foul territory, he emphatically slapped his glove and screamed towards the crowd from the visiting on-deck circle.
In between, he was examined briefly by Wilson and head athletic trainer Kyle Torgerson due to shoulder discomfort that he expressed pregame. But he quickly brushed them away, and postgame said that it was “nothing I’m concerned about.”
“It's been a frustrating year for all of us, especially for me,” said Woo, who exited after throwing just 75 pitches. “Obviously, a lot of really tough ones on the road, and just putting upon myself to come out with some energy, some fire.”
Raleigh also rebounded, with a solo homer that represented Seattle’s final run. It was a Crawford Boxes special that traveled just 327 feet with a sky-high, 45-degree launch angle that hung for 6.5 seconds and nicked the yellow padding at the top of the wall.
But they all count the same, and for a guy who’s seen the sport’s largest dip in slugging percentage (from .589 last year to .300), the Mariners will take what they can get.
“Great to see the smile coming around the bases there,” Wilson said, “and a huge run.”
The road won’t get easier for the Mariners, who are off to Milwaukee to face the team with the sport’s best record. But they will arrive riding momentum, which has been a rare thing to say for this team this season.