HOUSTON -- In a lot of ways, Monday’s game at Minute Maid Park felt like one that last year’s Mariners played. It featured a decent outing from its starting pitcher. It was mostly close throughout. And the final outcome would hinge on an offensive breakthrough -- or lack thereof.

Seattle’s bats couldn’t cobble together much production against its division rivals, and as such, a 3-0 loss to the Astros had a 2021 semblance to it. Part of it was also the opponent and venue, where the Mariners are now 4-24 dating back to the start of 2019.

The Mariners mustered just five hits, all singles, and didn’t put a runner in scoring position until Eugenio Suárez reached second base with two outs in the seventh inning, following a walk to J.P. Crawford. Immediately after, Julio Rodríguez struck out on three pitches against Ryne Stanek to halt a possible rally. 

They then had their second runner reach scoring position with one out in the ninth, but Suárez hit into a double play -- Seattle’s third of the night -- that ended the game. The Mariners are slashing .231/.294/.354 (.647 OPS) through seven games on this road trip after slashing .276/.375/.454 (.829 OPS) on the 7-2 homestand that preceded.

“I would expect a little bit more consistency,” manager Scott Servais said. “I think where we're at, especially coming off of swinging the bat so well at home, and it really hasn't carried over into the trip the way that I'd hoped it would. But we’ve got two big games here before we go back home. We've got to turn it around, and we're capable of doing that, there's no question about it.”

The lack of offense put Marco Gonzales on a tightrope five days after he took a 109 mph comebacker off his pitching wrist at Tampa Bay. Seattle’s left-hander pitched six solid innings and was charged with all three runs against a Houston club that’s had his number through the years. But two mistake pitches turned into decisive home runs via sluggers Yordan Alvarez and Jeremy Peña, the replacement at shortstop to Carlos Correa.

Gonzales was outdueled by Houston’s Jake Odorizzi, who induced just six whiffs and two strikeouts but utilized a solid fastball-cutter combo that elicited just five hard-hit balls, only two of which landed for hits.

“You’ve got to barrel balls up,” Servais said. “Odorizzi knows how to pitch, but he's not going to blow you away. He was off the barrel tonight. We didn't square many balls up. The trip has been a struggle for us to put much offense consistently.”

The Mariners would’ve needed four runs to win Monday’s game, a mark they’ve reached 15 times in 23 games this year. Seattle is 11-4 in those games compared to 1-7 after Monday when scoring three or fewer. Last year, the Mariners were 74-25 when scoring four-plus and 16-47 when plating fewer than four.

Monday marked the third time they’ve been shut out this season, two of which have come against the Astros, including an eight-shutout-innings showing from Justin Verlander. Even with an offense that was worth just 12.1 wins above replacement, sixth-fewest in MLB, per FanGraphs, they’d only been shut out eight times last year, and two of those were no-hitters.

Seattle has now dropped five of its past six, and 12 of its past 16 against Houston dating back to last year. It’s worth noting that the club is without its top run producer, Mitch Haniger, who went on the 10-day injured list with a high ankle sprain over the weekend.

“That's a quality start in this ballpark where, typically, the game can change really quickly,” Servais said of Gonzales. “He kept the game in check and gave us a chance to go deep in the ballgame. We had some traffic in the seventh and the ninth but, you’ve got to get a big hit there to get yourself back in the game, and we weren't able to come up with it.”