SHOWING OFF THEIR MOVES
Two-thirds of lineup homers by the fifth inning of rout
Crack. Kaboom. Choo-choo. The Mariners’ ears surely are ringing from the cacophony that engulfed them on the field Friday night. Wood hammered against tightly bound leather. Fireworks blasted. The train whistle blared.
It was more like music to the Minute Maid Park crowd that celebrated each of the season-high six home runs the Astros (71-40) thumped in their 10-2 win over the Seattle Mariners (47-65).
“Explosive,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said.
All but one of Houston’s runs scored via the long ball and came before Seattle could get a second out in the fifth inning. Yordan Alvarez, Jake Marisnick, Martin Maldonado, Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and Aledmys Diaz — in that order — delivered the blows.
“Really good job of producing throughout the order,” Hinch said.
The Astros’ 5-9 hitters homered in the same game for the first time in franchise history. The Rangers on May 28, 2011, were baseball’s last team to accomplish the feat. “Relentless,” Marisnick said. In a season of supposedly “juiced” baseballs launched for home runs at a record pace, hitters do not appear more powerful but rather more adroit at barreling up pitches for fly balls that just clear the walls. The more than 4,430 dingers on average have traveled 400 feet.
Then there are the moonshots belted by Alvarez, the Cuban Paul Bunyan, who hit his 13th homer Friday. They have averaged 411 feet, farther than any other Astro. The tree-snapping sound that resonated from the rookie’s 427-foot shot to center field in the second
inning set the tone for the home runs that followed.
“Alvarez’s ball was like a line drive that continued to carry to an area that lefties don’t generally hit,” Hinch said. “That was impressive.”
Alvarez’s 26 extra-base hits in his first 39 games are tied for the third-most in Major League Baseball history, behind Joe DiMaggio (29 in 1936) and Trevor Story (27 in 2016).
“He’s one of the best young hitters I’ve ever seen,” Altuve said.
With Diaz on base and two strikes, Marisnick turned on a pitch for a no-doubter to left field. He admired the ball until it disappeared behind the train tracks.
In the fourth, Martin Maldonado, who started his second game since the Astros acquired him before the trade deadline, hit his seventh home run of the season to right field.
Springer lined a two-out triple, one of his four hits in the game, to set up Altuve’s 17th homer.
Altuve drove in three runs. He is batting .478 with five homers and 11 RBIs in his past 12 games.
The long night for Mariners starter Yusei Kikuchi, a softthrowing lefty, ended after four innings. Righthander Reggie McCain made his major-league debut in the fifth. He gave up back-to-back homers to Correa and Diaz.
“One through nine, it’s putting a lot of pressure on pitchers,” Marisnick said. “You see it tonight with the power, the homers, but we can do it with walks, we can do it with base hits.”
Said Hinch: “We don’t go up there trying to homer.”
As if to make the point, the lefthanded Alvarez, who is averaging about one home run per every 11 at-bats, showed a shrew approach his second time up. The Mariners formed a severe pull shift, with nearly the entire infield area left of second base unmanned. Alvarez slashed a single through the chasm to demoralize Kikuchi.
Starter Wade Miley (10-4, 3.05 ERA) improved to 4-0 with a 2.63 ERA in his past eight starts. He allowed three hits and a seasonhigh five walks and gave up a tworun homer in the sixth to All-Star Daniel Vogelbach.
Miley has made 23 starts. Only twice has he allowed more than three runs.
Reliever Joe Smith pitched a scoreless ninth inning to seal the win. Since returning from offseason surgery and in-season rehabilitation on July 14, he has not allowed an earned run in 52⁄3 innings.
Before the game, the Astros unveiled Zack Greinke and two other pitchers that general manager Jeff Luhnow acquired before the trade deadline. The lineup must have gotten tired of the attention the bolstered pitching staff received.
“Six different guys hit homers,” Miley said. “Especially on a night like tonight, when I wasn’t commanding the ball very well, they enabled me to relax and not worry, to give up a big inning and still be commanding a lead.”