HOUSTON — Fitting, wasn’t it, that it happened like this, in this ballpark, against that team?
In mid-June, the Mariners had a 10-game lead over these blasted Astros in the American League West.
You know what happened next: Yep, they blew it.
And in the middle of Tuesday’s game, the Mariners had another lead over these blasted Astros, and they had turned a sold-out crowd of 38,195 mostly quiet at Minute Maid Park.
And, yep, you know what happened next: They blew it again.
Final score: Astros 4, Mariners 3.
End result: Houston retains the AL West crown for a fourth straight year, and for the seventh time in eight years.
The Astros celebrated with Champagne and cheap beer.
The Mariners tried to pick themselves up in silence in the other clubhouse.
Over the years, Minute Maid Park has mostly been a nightmare wrapped in barbed wire for the Mariners, buried dreams and booby traps banging ‘round every corner.
Add Tuesday’s loss to the growing list of forgettable and regrettable days here.
“We knew that coming in; it’s not anything new,” catcher Cal Raleigh said. “We’ve played here a bunch, and played big games here, and it was no different. We knew what to expect. We knew they’re never out of it.”
In spring training, the Mariners had made their intentions known: It was their turn, their time, to take the reins in the West, after falling agonizingly short a year ago.
Thanks in part to the Astros’ stunning 7-19 start to the season, the Mariners were on track to make that a reality, building a 44-31 record and a lot of outsized expectations.
Since then, well, it’s largely been a disaster for the Mariners, who went 20-32 over the next two months, saw their manager get fired and their 10-game lead turn into a five-game deficit.
“We know where we were halfway through the season, and where we’re at now, so it’s frustrating,” said Logan Gilbert, who took the loss Tuesday after allowing four runs in six innings.
On the heels on Monday’s feel-good victory over the Astros, Jorge Polanco’s second-inning solo homer helped the Mariners build a 3-1 lead through three innings Tuesday against Houston veteran lefty Framber Valdez.
The Mariners real failure was not taking advantage of prime opportunities to extend that lead and knock Valdez out early.
Three times the Mariners put a runner at third with one out.
Three times — in the third, sixth and eighth innings — those runners at third failed to score.
“Felt like we had it rolling there and had [them] on the ropes and kind of gave it to them a little bit there,” Raleigh said. “We had some opportunities, for sure, and just didn’t come through.”
At 81-77, and with four games remaining, the Mariners dropped 2.5 games behind the Tigers (83-74) for the third and final AL wild-card spot.
To sneak into the playoffs, the Mariners have to win out and hope the Royals don’t win more than one of their final five games.
“It’s always hard when you watch a team celebrate, but I think the message here is that there’s a lot of different scenarios that could still take place here,” manager Dan Wilson said. “And we’ll keep fighting. We have four games to go. We keep fighting and we’ll turn around and see what happens.”
Gilbert was solid early, and he said his “stuff” felt as good as it has all season. His 1-2-3 third inning pushed him across the 200-inning threshold for the first time in his career.
And with 213 strikeouts, Gilbert became just the sixth pitcher in club history to throw 200 innings with 200 strikeouts in a season, and the first since 2014, when Felix Hernandez had 248 strikeouts in 236 innings (and a 2.14 ERA).
But Gilbert was undone by three Houston homers: solo homers by Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker in the first and fourth innings, respectively, and the most haunting — Jason Heyward’s two-run blast in the bottom of the fifth.
“That was some of the best stuff I’ve had all season,” Gilbert said. “They hit a couple good pitches, a couple mistakes. That’s just baseball.”
Heyward has single-handedly put a significant dent in Seattle’s season over the past month, homering in his last three appearances against the Mariners.
Playing for the Dodgers, the veteran outfielder hit a three-run, eighth-inning homer off Mariners closer Andres Muñoz on Aug. 20, sending Los Angeles to a 6-3 victory.
Designated for assignment by the Dodgers a couple days after that, Heyward signed with the Astros.
On Monday, Heyward homered for the Astros’ only run in a 6-1 loss to the Mariners.
In the top of the fifth inning Tuesday, Heyward robbed the Raleigh — on a 110-mph line drive — of a hit when he crashed into the base of the wall in left field, smashing a piece off the out-of-town scoreboard.
His biggest blow came in the bottom of the fifth Tuesday when he turned on an elevated 99-mph fastball from Gilbert and launched it 397 feet out to right-center, giving the Astros a 4-3 lead.
Heyward’s homer came two batters after Victor Caratini had reached on a single to right field that just got past Justin Turner, glancing off the first baseman’s glove and rolling slowly into the outfield grass.
“That’s the game, you know. That’s just how it goes sometimes,” Wilson said. “I thought [Gilbert] pitched an outstanding game and gave us a chance to win.”
With a chance to tie the score in the sixth, Turner singled and Polanco walked to put two on with no outs.
After a Garver groundout moved both runners, J.P. Crawford struck out for the third time, the final batter Valdez would face.
On the first pitch from Astros reliever Bryan Abreu, pinch-hitter Luke Raley grounded out weakly to first to end the inning.
The Mariners put two runners on with one out in the eighth off Ryan Pressly. Turner walked and Polanco singled through the right side for his fourth hit of the night.
Pinch runner Leo Rivas advanced to third on a wild pitch. Garver popped up to Heyward in shallow left field, and the Astros turned to left-handed closer Josh Hader to face Crawford, the Mariners’ left-handed shortstop.
Crawford struck out on a check-swing strike three call on a 97-mph fastball low and outside, stranding Rivas at third and Polanco at first. It was Crawford’s fourth strikeout of the game.
“Didn’t do my job,” Crawford said. “Gotta do better than that. … Been a [bad] year at the plate. Plain and simple.”
Hader retired pinch-hitter Luis Urias to start the ninth, then struck out Victor Robles and Rodriguez to end it.
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