The Houston Astros haven’t played the Seattle Mariners since May 14. Seattle won 8-3. It clinched the season series for the Mariners, who have won 7 of the 8 games the two teams have played this season.
That May 14 loss was significant on several fronts. Not only did the Mariners clinch the season series and hold the first tiebreaker between the two teams, but it sent Houston to it’s season low 11 games under .500. Houston was reeling, and in danger of crashing out of the season early.
Embarrassed by their performance, the Astros rallied. They won 2 of 3 in the next series against the Texas Rangers, then took 7 of 10 on a road trip to get back to 6 under and stave off the Grim Reaper for the time being. Slowly but sure, the Astros would chip away at their record, getting closer to .500 without a sustained winning streak through the rest of May and through June.
That Mariners series had a chance to bury the Astros. They were 11 under, losers of 5 of 6 and 7 of 10. The pitching was a wreck. Houston showed their tenacity and toughness, and fought itself out of the hole.
Today, the Astros and Mariners will meet under very different circumstances.
Houston now sits atop the division at 62-60, having gone from -11 to +2 over the three months since these teams last played. Seattle finds itself in 3rd place, 57-65. They are 8 games under and 5 out in the division. They are 6-15 since July 21, when they entered play at 51-50.
Houston now has a chance to do to Seattle what the Mariners failed to do to Houston back in May.
Bury them.
On Hall of Fame Weekend at Daikin Park where the Astros will honor former players Alan Ashby and the late Phil Garner in to the Astros Hall of Fame, Houston can slam the door on the Mariners season. Send them to 11 games under .500, blast them 8 games out of the division with only 37 games left on their schedule. Drop them so far beneath the water it would take an Act of God for them to resurface.
Yes, the Mariners would still be alive in the Wild Card race technically. They are currently 3.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot, but there are also 6 teams in between them and the 3rd Wild Card. Being swept this weekend would likely put the nail in the coffin for them there as well.
It was after that loss to Seattle that the national media really started leaning in heavy to “the Astros are done” and trying to sell off the parts of the team to various contenders with mock trades. They underestimated the Astros resilience.
As the creator of the phrase “No one gets off the mat like the Houston Astros”, I have learned to have nearly unwavering faith in Houston’s ability to rebound from hideous losses, losing streaks, slumps, etc. Even I lost enough faith in the team after they were swept by the Orioles after the All Star break, falling back to 7 games under .500, undoing so much of the hard work and grind the team had put in the previous two months to crawl out of a very dangerous 11 games under .500 hole. It looked like they were running out of gas.
The Astros then went Super Saiyan the next two weeks, going 11-1. It was their first real run like that in a full calendar year. Not since they wrapped a 29-10 stretch with an 11-2 run culminating with a 3-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers in LA to move to a season high 20 games over .500 have the Astros had that kind of run.
Houston had not shown at any time this season they had that kind of performance in them. Yet they found it, and leapfrogged both Seattle and Texas to the top of the AL West. The phrase rang true yet again, even when I thought it couldn’t.
Being 1-7 against the Mariners right now means absolutely nothing for the Astros. Being 3-0 against them this weekend could mean everything, and make the division a two-team race between Houston and the Rangers in which the Astros already have a 2 game lead.
Mariners broadcaster Ryan Rowland-Smith told our Craig Larson Jr. that its now or never for Seattle in his series preview https://www.crawfishboxes.com/houston-astros-analysis/77330/astros-vs-mariners-series-preview-with-seattle-broadcaster-ryan-rowland-smith . He knows that his team is on life support.
Several times this season it has seemed the epitaph on the Astros season could be written. Now they can write it on the Mariners season, chiseled in stone.