Astros’ bullpen falters late in 6-3 loss to Mariners.
Team goes 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position
He seemed surprised, seething or some brewing combination of both, but Carlos Correa could do nothing but stare straight ahead.
Anger festered after an awful call, but the Astros’ cerebral shortstop could not allow emotion to overtake him. His face had no expression. He did not say a word.
Correa walked toward a dugout in disbelief at such a sorry strike-three call but still holding solace in one fact: The winning run stood 90 feet away, and the sport’s most contact-crazy offense had two more tries to chase it home. No lineup strikes out less than Houston’s. None makes contact at a higher rate, either. Here, the Astros did not need a hit. A fly ball would do. Even a well-placed grounder.
The Astros failed, and a sweep slipped away. After fanning Correa, Seattle reliever Paul Sewald struck out Jason Castro and Yuli Gurriel to hold Houston scoreless in the 10th inning. Ryne Stanek imploded in the 11th, yielding a mammoth three-run homer to Kyle Seager that propelled the Mariners to a 6-3 win Sunday at Minute Maid Park.
Blame for a blown lead
can fall upon the three leverage relievers who faltered or home-plate Brian Gorman’s strike zone that no one in the stadium could comprehend. Houston held a two-run lead after seven innings with both of its best relievers rested, but even the best bullpens have an occasional blowup. Gorman made glaring mistakes for both sides all afternoon.
But one sobering fact is impossible to ignore: In the 10th inning of a tie game, the Mariners issued an intentional walk to load the bases for Correa with no outs. The Astros scored 27 runs in the first two games of this series. They squandered many chances to replicate the output Sunday. The lineup stranded 13 baserunners and finished 3for-16 with runners in scoring position. The 10th-inning futility only accentuated an afternoon-long issue.
“We had action,” manager Dusty Baker said. “We had nobody out, bases loaded, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen our team strike out three times. But he was throwing some quality high fastballs. And that pitch on Correa was inside.
“We should have scored a lot more runs than we did today.”
Houston scored two in seven innings but still seemed in ideal position. Starter Framber Valdez spun seven scoreless frames. Baker tapped into his remade bullpen for the final two. For the first time since the trade deadline, it blew up. Stanek’s awful 11th inning came after setup man Kendall Graveman and closer Ryan Pressly could not protect a two-run lead with six outs to go.
Pitching against Seattle for the first time since his acquisition, Graveman gave up consecutive two-out doubles during the eighth. Pinch hitter Jake Bauers lifted an elevated sinker down the right-field line for a double. Leadoff man J.P. Crawford destroyed a mislocated fastball over Jake Meyers’ head in center field to score him, halving Houston’s lead.
“We just made some pitches in the heart of the plate,” Baker said. “Ordinarily, that doesn’t happen. That was real tough.”
Graveman’s strikeout of Mitch Haniger stopped Seattle’s rally against him. Pressly ran in for the ninth unscored upon during his last five outings. He had not blown a save since Fernando Tatis Jr.’s mammoth three-run homer against him May 29 at Minute Maid Park. Until Sunday, it was Houston’s only loss when leading after eight innings.
Seattle sent the middle of its order to face a closer who rarely makes mistakes. Ty France saw one. He hammered Pressly’s second pitch — an 0-1 fastball down the middle — off the gas pump in left-center field to tie the game.
“I threw it right down the middle, and he capitalized on it,” Pressly said. “Sometimes they foul that ball back; sometimes they pop it up. He got a good pitch that he could handle, and he got it. He barreled it up and hit a homer. It was obviously a bad pitch.
“I take this one. This is totally on me. I should have gone out there and did a better job. I just made one mistake, and he capitalized on it.”
Pressly shouldering blame typifies the sort of teammate he is. Others around him shared it Sunday. Houston scored twice against Mariners starter Tyler Anderson but had chances for so much more. The lineup stranded seven baserunners while he worked. Anderson limited the Astros to one hit during six at-bats with runners in scoring position. Even that required an official scorer’s change of heart.
The Astros had a plan to ambush Anderson. They swung at the first pitch of each inning he began. The strategy produced a hit during the second, third and fourth. Yordan Alvarez annihilated an 88.8 mph fourseamer into the Astros’ bullpen to begin the second and supply Houston a 1-0 lead.
Gurriel struck a single three pitches later. Anderson unleashed a wild pitch that got Gurriel to second base. Unproductive plate appearances by Aledmys Díaz and Meyers made Taylor Jones the final hope.
Jones chopped a changeup down the third-base line. Seager seemed in position to complete the play, but it appeared by no means routine. The baseball took an awkward hop behind the bag and sailed past Seager’s outstretched glove. Gurriel scored from second base. The official scorer charged Seager with an error but reversed the ruling one inning later.
The Astros loaded the bases in the third, had a leadoff single in the fourth and put two more runners in scoring position during the fifth — the final time they’d see Anderson. Mariners manager Scott Servais summoned Joe Smith to relieve him. The former Astros sidearmer struck out Jones and Martín Maldonado to quell the threat — another missed chance on an afternoon filled with them.
“It happened all day,” Baker said. “It’s one of those days where we didn’t put the ball in play early in the game. I guess they made some good pitches on us. We had second and third twice, bases loaded twice. Boy, that was tough.”
Baker managed with, basically, a two-man bench.
Chas McCormick’s left hand injury left him available only to pinch-run or play defense. Baker asked him for the latter in the ninth inning, and McCormick replaced Alvarez in the outfield.
The logic is sound: opting for the best defensive outfield in a close game. The result tells a different tale. Alvarez’s spot in the order arrived in the 10th inning, and McCormick could not hit. Baker used Castro instead.
Castro stood on deck while Correa fell behind 1-2 against Sewald. He spun a slider that came nowhere near the strike zone and sailed two feet inside. Gorman deemed it a strike. Correa stood at home plate. Expression left his face. He stared at his dugout and did not dare tempt fate.
“It doesn’t get any worse than that,” Correa said. “I thought about the team (and) tried to keep my composure, knowing we didn’t have guys on the bench and that was only out one. We got two more chances at scoring that run.”
No one seized advantage.