This story was originally published by Dead Spin
Jorge Polanco and Luke Raley hit home runs as the Seattle Mariners snapped a five-game skid and moved into a virtual tie for first place in the American League West with a 6-4 victory against the visiting Houston Astros on Sunday afternoon.
Right-hander Bryan Woo (4-1) pitched 5 2/3 innings for the victory. He allowed two runs on four hits, with no walks and five strikeouts.
Andres Munoz struck out the side in the ninth for his 16th save of the season.
Yordan Alvarez hit for the cycle and Jeremy Pena also homered for the Astros, who had taken over the division lead by winning the first two games of the series.
Alvarez became just the second player in the 25-year history of T-Mobile Park to accomplish the feat after Oakland’s Miguel Tejada in 2001. Alvarez singled in the first inning, homered off the facade of the upper deck in the fourth, tripled to center in the sixth and doubled down the right field line in the eighth.
The Mariners won despite center fielder Julio Rodriguez leaving in the sixth inning with an apparent right ankle injury. Rodriguez crashed into the outfield wall trying to track down Alvarez’s run-scoring triple. Rodriguez initially had the ball in his glove, but it popped out as he hit the wall.
Rodriguez crumpled to the warning track and immediately grabbed his ankle. After receiving medical attention, Rodriguez was able to walk off the field on his own with a slight limp.
The Mariners took the lead in the second off right-hander Ronel Blanco (9-5). With one out, Josh Rojas hit a ground-rule double to right-center and Mitch Haniger walked. An out later, Dylan Moore lined a two-run triple to left.
The Astros cut their deficit in half in the fourth as Alvarez hit his 20th homer of the season.
The Mariners got that run back in the bottom half of the inning as Polanco led off by going deep to right.
The Astros made it 3-2 in the sixth as Mauricio Dubon led off with a double and scored on Alvarez’s two-out triple.
Raley hit a three-run shot with two outs in the bottom of the inning after singles by Polanco and Haniger to give Seattle a 6-2 lead.
Pena led off the seventh by going deep to left.
Alvarez doubled with one out in the eighth and scored on Chas McCormick’s two-out single to center.
–Field Level Media
