HOUSTON \u2013 Little has gone according to plan for these Mariners, and even that might be a gross understatement.<\/p>\n
This sideways season reached a tipping point Friday night at Daikin Park, in a place where so many games have gone awry in some many unimaginable ways in recent years. The latest was the Astros\u2019 crushing five-run 10th inning in this series opener that could have easily completed the better-luck-next-year obituary begging to be written about this team.<\/p>\n
Instead, the Mariners reawakened a sense of imagination over the weekend with two of the season\u2019s most fulfilling victories, capped by a 3-2 nailbiter Sunday over their AL West-leading rivals to take the series and, finally, build something that is starting to look like momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the complete package,\u201d catcher Cal Raleigh said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we can be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bryan Woo, in his second straight impressive road start, threw six sharp innings Sunday night before a national television audience, and Raleigh and Randy Arozarena both homered to help the Mariners (59-66) inch within four games of the Astros (63-62) atop the division.<\/p>\n
New reliever Seranthony Dom\u00ednguez struck out Daulton Varsho swinging over a splitter to strand the bases loaded in the eighth inning, and Andr\u00e9s Mu\u00f1oz struck out ex-Mariner Taylor Trammell swinging over a 94.8-mph changeup to end it, two days after he coughed up a two-run lead in Friday\u2019s loss.<\/p>\n
One good series and two quality wins are, to be sure, merely a small sample. There\u2019s 120-some games of evidence to suggest these Mariners don\u2019t belong in the playoff discussion.<\/p>\n
But these guys do feel like they might have turned a corner this weekend, and they haven\u2019t forgotten the late surge \u2013 winning 16 of 17 in September \u2013 that propelled them to the AL West title a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe year hasn\u2019t really gone the way that we thought it (would), either as a team or individually,\u201d Woo said. \u201cAnd I think it honestly it makes it easier for everybody to just let a lot of the beginning of the year go and buy into, \u2018This is what we\u2019ve got\u2019 as a group.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s in it together. Just continue to stick together. Continue to believe. We still have a lot of baseball left. So take advantage of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a mixture of elation and irritation, Woo let out a primal scream and smacked the side of his glove with his right hand when Raleigh made a catch off a Jose Altuve pop up in foul territory to close out the sixth inning.<\/p>\n
Woo had allowed a leadoff homer to No. 9 hitter, Nick Allen, to cut the Mariners\u2019 lead to 3-2 in the sixth. But he managed to retire the top of the Houston lineup \u2013 notably, striking out AL MVP favorite Yordan Alvarez \u2013 and then stomped into the visitors\u2019 dugout with as much ferocity as ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like that\u2019s when I\u2019m at my best \u2013 just get into that zone, a little bit of that alter ego,\u201d Woo said. \u201cJust kind of a take-no-prisoners type of mentality. You\u2019ve got to bring your best when you come here.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the Mariners began this nine-game, three-city road trip, Woo had the highest road ERA of any starting pitcher in the majors. He then threw five shutout innings at Yankee Stadium to begin the trip, and followed that Sunday with six strong innings, allowing three hits (two solo homers) with one walk and five strikeouts.<\/p>\n
He was feeling some shoulder discomfort during the game, which is why manager Dan Wilson decided to pull him after 75 pitches. But Woo quickly shrugged off any injury concern postgame.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a frustrating year for all of us, especially for me. Obviously, a lot of really tough ones on the road,\u201d Woo said. \u201cJust putting it upon myself to come out with some energy and some fire these last two starts and looking myself in the mirror. If we\u2019re going to do it, then I\u2019ve got to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arozarena gave the Mariners a first-inning lead with a solo homer, his 18th, off Houston ace Hunter Brown.<\/p>\n
Dom Canzone, on his 29th birthday, added a double and a key two-out RBI to make it 2-0 in the third inning, and Raleigh hit his 13th homer when he pulled a sky-high fly ball into the Crawford Boxes, off the top of the 19-foot wall in left field, against left-handed reliever Bennett Sousa, in the sixth.<\/p>\n
What pleased Raleigh, as much as anything, was the contributions from all corners of the roster this weekend. He pointed to Victor Robles and Emerson Hancock as heroes in Saturday\u2019s 10-5 victory; Brock Rodden\u2019s steadiness at shortstop in his first MLB games; and Dom\u00ednguez clutch strikeout Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to take all 26 of us,\u201d Raleigh said. \u201cEach night\u2019s going to be a different guy. And as long as everybody\u2019s bringing that focus and energy and sense of awareness and that edge, I think we\u2019re going to be where we want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alvarez and Isaac Paredes had back-to-back two-out singles off Gabe Speier in the eighth, at which point Wilson called on Dom\u00ednguez.<\/p>\n
On Dom\u00ednguez\u2019s first pitch, Altuve hit a soft popup into the middle of the infield \u2013 a 44.7-mph parachute \u2013 that landed between the mound and second base as Dom\u00ednguez stumbled and fell back trying to make the catch.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly in Houston would something like that would happen,\u201d Raleigh said. \u201cWe always play the craziest games here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dom\u00ednguez escaped when he got the next batter, Varsho, to swing over a 1-2 splitter below the zone.<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1oz allowed a one-out single to LaMonte Wade Jr., but struck out Yainer D\u00edaz and Trammell to close out his 100th major-league save (99th with the Mariners).<\/p>\n
Working with backup catcher Jhonny Pereda on Friday, Mu\u00f1oz leaned heavily on his slider; on Sunday night, Raleigh leaned on Mu\u00f1oz\u2019s fastball, which touched 101.8 mph and averaged 101.1.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially here, that hurts a lot when those (blown saves) happen, because you feel like you let the down the team,\u201d Mu\u00f1oz said. \u201cBut I\u2019ve been through these situations a lot, and I am able to just flush that a little easier. Just go back out there and try to do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Little has gone according to plan for these Mariners, and even that might be a gross…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-408692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}