*Photo from the San Diego Union Tribune*
There aren't a lot of teams in baseball playing better right now. Julio Rodriguez had 4 hits, Dylan Moore homered twice, and the Seattle Mariners routed the Houston Astros with a 10-3 victory on Saturday in Houston.
The Mariners have won 5 straight games, 7 of 10, and 13 of 16 to surge into a playoff spot. Part of the reason why is Rodriguez, who collected 4 hits in 6 at bats to reach 17 hits in his last 4 games, setting a major league record in the process.
Seattle manager Scott Servais said of Rodriguez that "Julio is just smoking hot right now and it is fun to watch. Every time up there he expects to get a hit, we expect to watch him get a hit. Tonight obviously our offense was on it. We've seen Framber Valdez a lot, had really good at-bats tonight early on putting pressure on him."
Eugenio Suarez started the scoring in the first with an RBI single, plating Rodriguez to make it 1-0 Mariners. Cade Marlowe made it 2-0 in the second with an RBI triple before Teoscar Hernandez had an RBI double and Cal Raleigh had an RBI single in the 3rd to make it 4-0 Mariners. Alex Bregman hit a solo home run in the 3rd and Yainer Diaz did the same in the 4th to get the Astros on the board and make it 4-2.
Moore hit a two run home run in the 5th, making it 6-2 Mariners. It stayed that way until a two run double by Hernandez in the 8th to make the score 8-2. In the top of the 9th, both Moore and Sam Haggerty hit solo home runs to make it 10-2 Mariners. Mauricio Dubon hit a solo shot for the Astros in the bottom of the 9th to make it a 10-3 final.
Seattle starter Logan Gilbert said after the game that "It’s always tough to play here. Everybody knows that, especially a couple of years ago when I came up. Last year, we made some momentum, gained some ground when we came here. And then doing it again this year says a lot."
Gilbert turned in a quality start for the Mariners, allowing two runs on 8 hits and one walk in 6 innings, striking out 3 hitters. Trent Thornton and Gabe Speier each threw a scoreless inning, with Eduard Bazardo sealing the win despite allowing a run in the 9th.
Framber Valdez got hit hard for the Astros, allowing 6 runs on 10 hits and two walks in 5 innings. Ryne Stanek and Rafael Montero each threw a scoreless inning before Hector Neris and Parker Mushinski each allowed two runs in one inning for both.
But the big news for the Astros came in the form of superstar Jose Altuve. He reached 2,000 career hits despite the Astros being routed. He became the 3rd Astros player to reach 2,000 hits, and the fastest Astros player to do it, taking 1,631 games. He's also the 10th player in baseball history from Venezuela to reach the 2,000 hit marker.
Craig Biggio, one of the Astros with 2,000 hits, said of Altuve that "He goes out there and plays every day. He takes his 600 at-bats, and he’s an amazing player. What’s he got, two or three batting titles? The awards that he has at home are pretty incredible. But he’s a better person than he is a player, and I can’t tell you how happy I am for him."
Up next, the series wraps up on Sunday afternoon. The Mariners go for the series sweep with rookie Emerson Hancock taking the mound, while the Astros try to salvage a game with Hunter Brown getting the start.
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