Mariners fall victim to Astros’ Morton

Charlie Morton pitched seven innings of three-hit ball, Jose Altuve hit a three-run double and the Houston Astros beat the Seattle Mariners 9-2 on Thursday.

After losing the series opener, the Astros won their third straight. Morton allowed singles to Robinson Cano, Mitch Haniger and Nelson Cruz, and otherwise baffled Seattle’s lineup. In the four-game series, Houston’s starting pitchers dominated with none of the four allowing more than two earned runs.

Morton (3-0) was the best of the four. Mixing a fastball that was still in the mid-90s in the seventh inning with a good curveball, Morton struck out eight and walked none. He retired 15 straight between Haniger’s one-out single in the second inning and Cruz’s broken-bat hit in the seventh.

Altuve’s two-out double in the fifth capped an inning in which the M’s defence didn’t help starter Marco Gonzales. Kyle Seager’s error on Alex Bregman’s grounder to third started the inning, and Marwin Gonzalez followed with a line drive single off Seager’s glove. Rather than let Gonzales (1-2) finish the inning, Seattle manager Scott Servais went to reliever Dan Altavilla to face the top of Houston’s order. Altavilla walked George Springer, and Altuve followed with a shot to right-centre for a 4-0 lead.

Seattle got a pair of runs in the eighth inning on RBI doubles from David Freitas and Jean Segura.

Evan Gattis was at the centre of a rare triple-play in the fourth inning. With runners at first and second and no outs, Gattis hit a check swing ground ball to third base. Seager stepped on third and threw to second base to force Carlos Correa.

Gattis finished running to first but apparently believed it was the third out and turned to jog back to the dugout. Seager noticed what was happening, and Cano threw to Daniel Vogelbach, who applied the tag.

It was the 12th triple-play by Seattle and first since 2015.