Mariners sweep Astros, close in on AL West title

HOUSTON – When he came to Seattle before the 2019 season, he was considered by many in Major League Baseball to be an underachieving prospect who couldn’t stay healthy with an attitude problem. The Mariners believed that a new team, a chance to be an everyday player and the freedom to be himself, would unlock his talent and turn him into a foundational piece of their rebuild.

In reality, J.P. Crawford needed the Mariners as much they needed him. That relationship will now take them back to the postseason for the second time together.

On Sunday night with a national TV audience watching on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, the Mariners’ longest tenured player moved them a major step closer to winning the organization’s first American League West title since 2001.

Crawford’s grand slam off Astros starter Jason Alexander highlighted a seven-run second inning that set the tone in Seattle’s eventual 7-3 victory.

In perhaps their biggest regular-season series in the past five seasons, the Mariners (87-69) rolled into Minute Maid, er, Daikin Park and won three straight games over the weekend.

With the sweep, the Mariners’ magic number to win the AL West is down to three games. Any time Seattle wins a game or Houston loses a game, the number is trimmed by one. Mathematically, the Mariners could clinch as early as Wednesday at T-Mobile Park vs. the Rockies. They are also two games up on Detroit to secure the second seed and have a bye past the wild card round.

“It feels great to be in the spot that we’re in,” Crawford said. “We can’t look too, too much in the future. We’ve got worry about our business on Tuesday.”

Crawford can still remember the rebuilding in 2019 and 2020, exceeding every expectations in 2021 and falling a game short in 2023 and 2024.

“It sucks,” he said. “It fuels a fire in you.”

Back on Sept. 2, after the Mariners suffered a brutal walk-off loss to the Rays, a dejected Crawford sat in front of his locker staring at the floor. The Mariners were reeling and he was wearing every loss like it was own fault.

He was blunt in his criticism, saying: “It’s not a lack of focus. It’s not lack of work. This is the hardest working group of men I’ve been with ever in my career. It’s not any of that. It’s just sometimes when we get knocked down in the fight, we stay down, and we can’t have that right now.”

And now?

“Everyone’s playing with it with an edge to them, from inning one till nine,” he said. “Everyone’s fighting and competing, having great at-bats.”

Meanwhile the Astros, who have won the division seven of the last eight seasons, are teetering on the edge of making the playoffs. They are on the outside looking in on the postseason. They are tied with the Guardians at 84-72 for the third wild-card spot, but Cleveland holds the tiebreaker.

Even before the season, the Mariners knew this series in Houston could ultimately decide the division winner. They came into a building that’s been cruel to them and defeated their nemesis.

Eventually, every bully gets beaten.

“That’s way we kind of wanted it to go to,” said starter Logan Gilbert, who picked up the win. “I’m glad the schedule lined up to where it was us against them, because then it’s like ‘May the best team win.’ It’s not like you have to hope from other teams to do something special. I think if we win the West, if we are whatever seed in the AL, I want us to prove that, and I feel like we kind of did it this weekend. Of course, we still have six really important games left.”

The second inning started off rather innocently on another smart play from Josh Naylor. With Astros third baseman Carlos Correa playing deep and away from the third base line, Naylor executed a perfect bunt on the first pitch – a sinker away from Alexander – dropping it on the edge of the grass of the third base line. There was no play to make on it.

Jorge Polanco followed with an infield single, hustling out a slow bouncing ball to second.

When Eugenio Suárez hit a screaming line drive to right field, the Mariners had loaded the bases with no outs.

In seasons past, the failure to capitalize on such situations in Houston seemed almost given. When Correa was able to knock down Dom Canzone’s hard line drive and fire it home to get Naylor for a force out at home, the Astros and Alexander were one pitch away from getting out of the inning with a double play.

But Alexander wouldn’t record another out in the inning.

Victor Robles wouldn’t give in to pitches looking to induce a groundball, working a walk to force in the first run of the game.

It brought Crawford to the plate with the bases loaded. He has flourished in those situations over his career, adopting a philosophy he learned from Kyle Seager when it came to hitting with runners on every base – “all the pressure is on the pitcher.”

Coming into the game, he had a .365/.375/.716 slash line with seven doubles, two triples, five homers, 81 RBI, six walks and 15 strikeouts in 88 career plate appearances with the bases loaded.

After watching a sinker down the middle for a first-pitch strike and swinging and missing at changeup away, Crawford was in an early hole.

But …

“All the pressure is on the pitcher.”

Crawford didn’t chase a second straight changeup down in the dirt.

“All the pressure is on the pitcher.”

Alexander tried to a breaking ball that was supposed to go from the bottom of the strike zone to the dirt. Instead, it hung in the middle of the plate with minimal spin. Crawford pounced on it, ripping a towering fly ball to right field. He didn’t move from the box immediately, taking a few steps and staring at the ball as it carried over the wall and 10 rows deep.

“I’m just trying to get something in the air, trying to get a sac fly and get one run,” he said.

Crawford got four runs with his sixth career grand slam. It gave the Mariners a 5-0 lead.

But the Mariners weren’t done. Less than 24 hours earlier, they had a 6-0 lead that was erased with a grand slam from Jeremy Peña.

Randy Arozarena followed with a single, ending an 0-for-21 stretch to keep the inning going. Cal Raleigh continued his march toward 60 homers, yanking a 1-0 changeup over the wall in right field for No. 58 on the season.

When Julio Rodríguez followed with a single to center, Astros manager Joe Espada mercifully ended Alexander’s outing.

His pitching line: 1⅓ innings pitched, seven runs allowed on seven hits with a walk and one strikeout. Alexander’s replacement, Enyel De Los Santos retired the next two hitters to end the inning.

But the damage had been done.

Logan Gilbert, who has traditionally not received great run support in his outings, came out with a shutdown bottom of the second after being given a big lead.

With the Mariners’ leverage relievers heavily used, Gilbert gave the Mariners a quality start, working six innings and allowing one run on three hits with a walk and four strikeouts.

His lone run came in the third when rookie Zach Cole took advantage of a hanging slider and hit a solo homer to right field.