Seth Smith hit a pair of homers as the Seattle Mariners salvaged the final game of the series, beating the Houston Astros 7-3 on Sunday afternoon.
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But his bid for a ideal game was broken up five pitches into the sixth inning when Teoscar Hernandez singled up the middle on a 2-2 fastball for the Astros’ first baserunner of the night.
McHugh was outstanding in baffling the surging Mariners all night, not allowing a base runner until Nori Aoki’s leadoff single in the fourth inning.
Houston (78-71) is a half game behind both the Mariners (79-70) and Detroit in the race for the wild card spots. Fiers is coming off his shortest outing of the season, having allowed seven runs in just 2 1/3 innings of a 9-5 loss to the Cubs last Sunday. Before Saturday’s game, Houston manager A.J. Hinch praised Fiers’ perseverance, a quality that paid off against Seattle. “Our guys hadn’t seen a ton of him.he did a good job challenging us, just above the zone and we swung under today and hit a lot of pop-ups in the infield, a few balls to the outfield”.
Hinch praised the patience of his hitters laying off pitches just outside of the zone and making Hernandez throw strikes.
Fister (12-12) allowed seven runs off eight hits over 3 2/3 innings. It was the third time Fiers didn’t allow a run in 27 starts this season, and the three hits allowed also equaled his season best. It’s really great to get there. “Just go game to game”.
Red Sox 7, Yankees 4: Hanley Ramirez homered for the second straight game, and David Ortiz had a pair of hits to send AL East-leading Boston over NY. Paxton was ideal through five innings before allowing both runs in the sixth. “We’ve just got to keep fighting”. Gattis and Gonzalez each hit a fifth-inning solo homer as the Astros jumped out to a 6-0 lead while chasing Hernandez after 4 1/3 innings.
Houston third baseman Yuli Gurriel delivered drove in his third run in two days with a two-out, RBI double in the eighth. He got Jake Marisnick to bounce out to third without scoring a run and struck out George Springer.
Paxton pitched through the seventh, giving up four hits with an intentional walk and seven strikeouts. Current Mariners are batting.230 (35×152) against Fister with a.242 BABIP, 4.89 ERA, 11.6 K%, and a 10.5 BB%.
Seattle third baseman Kyle Seager gave the Mariners a 2-0 lead with a two-out, two-run double in the first inning.
The Mariners’ offense, which had scored 89 runs in the first 14 games of September, has gone from productive to punchless in the first two games to start the homestand.
“The last couple of nights we’ve been a little anxious at the plate and they’ve feasted on it”, Servais said Saturday night. Seattle manager Scott Servais said Lind is day to day.
Vogelbach, who was a key piece in the July trade that sent LHP Mike Montgomery to the Chicago Cubs, was promoted from Triple-A Tacoma on September 12 and has been an important addition as veteran 1B Adam Lind, also a left-handed hitter, is battling a sprained finger. Baltimore and Toronto, the teams that now hold the top spots in the two-berth wild-card race, lost Saturday to give Houston renewed hope.
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On the mound for the Astros today will be our old friend Doug Fister, who hasn’t thrown a quality start since August 22nd.
