Mariners Beat Astros 10-5 in First Game of Offseason

That was an enjoyable baseball game.

The Mariners beat the Astros 10-5 on Saturday in Houston. The offense strung together a bunch of hits early and found some power late. Emerson Hancock turned in another outing so good that it would have seemed laughable about this time last year. The season is over, of course, and the Mariners are still eight games below .500. But this was a nice reminder that even losing baseball seasons can have a few gems.

Despite the final line, Hancock was in trouble right out of the gate. In the bottom of the first, he walked Yordan Alvarez and gave up three straight singles to open the scoring at 1-0. None of the singles were hit too hard, but with the bases loaded and just one out, this felt like a looming clunker. Then Hancock put together a fun little sequence to Christian Walker:

• Fastball paint, called strike
• Fastball paint, called ball but challenged for a strike
• Nasty sweeper away, chased for strike three and out number two

Then Hancock put together came a fun sequence to Taylor Trammell:

• Fastball down the middle, called strike
• Curveball below the zone, chased foul
• Fastball up in the zone, can’t touch it for strike three

The Astros had Hancock dead to rights, but he wriggled out of it with two strikeouts on six total pitches. It was a phenomenal escape from the first inning. And from there, Hancock was fantastic. He gave up a Crawford Boxes homer to Christian Vázquez in the second, but he faced the minimum the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. 

Now, it was just four innings, but I love “faced the minimum” stretches for pitchers, so I was looking forward to the seventh. Things started off well. Hancock got Walker to chase a high fastball for a strikeout. He fell behind Trammell 3-1 before getting a pop up — way, way up — that hit the roof and fell back into Hancock’s glove for what looked like the second out. Unfortunately, that’s considered a foul ball in Daikin Park, keeping the at bat alive. On the next pitch, Hancock got Trammell looking with a called strike, but Trammell successfully challenged for ball four. This wasn’t quite the end of the “faced the minimum” stretch, as a double play was still in order. And what do you know, Hancok got Cam Smith to hit a hard grounder right to the bag at first. Naylor scooped it, stepped on the bag for an out, then fired to second for the turn. But the throw hit Trammell while sliding into second (he probably would have been safe anyways), and this seemed the end to the “faced the minimum” stretch. I suddenly realized I was standing up — man, there really hasn’t been much to root for this season. Then, improbably, out of nowhere, with LaMonte Wade Jr. at the plate in a 1-1 count, Hancock turned and picked off Trammell at second to end the inning. I whooped audibly. Does this actually count as facing the minimum? Hancock did technically face four different batters in the inning, which would imply no. But he also got the first three batters out, and Wade got a fresh at bat to start the eighth, so yes? I don’t know what the ruling is here, but that was the most fun I’ve had watching an inning of Mariners baseball in a while.

Anyways, Hancock’s night was over after seven innings, allowing two runs on five hits and two walks, while striking out eight on 16 whiffs. The Astros managed just four hard hit balls against him. Hancock with the outing reached the 2.0 fWAR mark on the season, making him tied for the 48th best starter in the majors this year. Unbelievable.

Also unbelievable: The Mariners offense was actually great from beginning to end on Saturday. Julio led off the second with a hard line drive single up the middle. Josh Naylor fell behind 0-2 and swung at a heater at his eyes, but got enough of it to poke a grounder up the middle and put runners on first and third. Cole Young followed with a dribbler to the first-base side of the mound. Hayden Wesneski charged after it but missed with a lunge, allowing Julio to score. After a strikeout from Cal Raleigh, Victor Robles hit a slicing line drive into right center gap. Varsho gave it a dive but fell just short and the ball trickled to the wall. Naylor, tagging at second on the play, came around to score easily. Young, not tagging from first, nearly caught up with him and scored with a slide into Naylor’s rear. Regardless, it was a two-run triple for Robles. Brendan Donovan followed with a single to make it 4-1.

The Mariners had runners most innings from there. In the fourth, Young singled, Robles walked, and Donovan drove in another run with a single.

In the fifth, Dominic Canzone and Julio each reached to lead off the inning. But they ultimately didn’t score, with Raleigh finishing the inning with a weak fly out. This was a fun game overall, and I hate to sour the recap with analysis, but it’s pretty clear how opposing pitchers are attacking Cal (these were all fastballs), and it’s pretty clear he can’t lay off.

There were more runners in the sixth and seventh, but they didn’t score again until the eighth. Robles singled with two outs then stole second. Brock Rodden swatted what looked like it might be his first big league home run, but it clanked off that weird, two-story, chainlink, garage door, bullpen fence(?) in left center for an RBI double. Donovan followed with another single to score Rodden — his third RBI single of the day.

The game was 7-2 at this point. José Ferrer came on to relieve Hancock. He gave up a double and a homer to make the game 7-4. If the season weren’t over, I might give you some analysis on this inning. Alas!

The Mariners couldn’t stop scoring in the top of the ninth. Julio led off with a sharp ground ball single. Naylor dunked a looping single. And Young juuuuust snuck out a wall scraper to right for a three-run homer. With 10 runs on 15 hits, every Mariner reached based today except Randy Arozarena (understandable!) and Raleigh (understandable…). This was a great night for the offense.

The Astros would get one more. Jose Altuve led off the bottom of the ninth with a line drive into the right-center gap. It probably would have been a single or a double but Victor Robles laid out and landed nowhere near the ball and allowed it roll to the wall for a triple. A groundout scored him. Whatever. Seranthony Domínguez quickly set down the next two batters to deliver the Mariners a 10-5 win. It was the most enjoyable game in weeks.