Miscues stack up as Mariners miss out on chance for massive sweep

SEATTLE -- The Mariners have had a stinging share of hindsight over each of the past two offseasons -- perhaps more than any team in baseball -- when it comes to reflecting back on the 162-game gauntlet and examining how if just one game swung a different way, the season’s entire fate could’ve changed.

After all, Seattle was the first team on the outside looking into the postseason in both 2023 and 2024, missing the cutoff for the final American League Wild Card spot by just one game in each of those years.

And depending on how the rest of 2025 shakes out, Sunday’s 11-3 loss to the Astros could qualify for similar criteria.

Seattle had its best pitcher on the mound in Bryan Woo, the momentum of a five-game winning streak that began leading into the All-Star break and was facing a Houston club that was without four of its best hitters -- with 16 total players on the IL.

All of those factors had the Astros on the cusp of a mid-summer spin, having lost seven of their past eight entering the finale at T-Mobile Park. Yet it was Seattle that suffered the day’s spiral, blowing a 3-0 lead and surrendering a whopping 11 unanswered runs.

“That can’t happen,” said Woo, who was scoreless through the fourth inning on just 51 pitches before things fell apart and he surrendered the first five unanswered.

In defeat, the Mariners also squandered the chance to cut their deficit from first place in the American League West to two games. Instead, they fell to four games behind while pulling even in their head-to-head with Houston at 5-5 with a only three-gamer at Daikin Park from Sept. 19-21 remaining, a series that at this rate could have major playoff implications.

Sweeps in the big leagues are incredibly difficult to pull off. But this one, with everything aligning in Seattle’s favor -- including the shortest outing of the year from Astros All-Star Hunter Brown -- was there for the taking, especially as the Astros were without Yordan Alvarez, Jake Meyers, Jeremy Peña and Isaac Paredes, who exited Saturday’s game and flew back to Houston with a worrisome hamstring injury. The latter two were All-Star selections this year.

And that’s not to mention a rotation’s worth of starters who are also sidelined: Luis Garcia, Spencer Arrighetti, Cristian Javier, J.P. France and Ronel Blanco.

Asked if the Mariners felt it was a spoiled opportunity given all of those factors, manager Dan Wilson said: “I wouldn't say that. I mean, I think that this was a day where we got an early lead, but they came back. And offensively, they played to what they normally do and got a couple home runs to help that out. But outside of that, this is an offense that likes to do that, and that's what they did today.”

The homers in question were a pair of solo shots that Woo surrendered in the sixth -- a first-pitch, center-cut fastball to Christian Walker and a sinker that bled too far over the plate to Taylor Trammell in a 1-2 count -- that pushed the Astros ahead for good. But it was their three-spot in the fifth that tied the game when momentum swung.

Woo walked Trammell and surrendered a single to Mauricio Dubón to begin that frame. Then after a forceout, an error on J.P. Crawford attempting to corral an over-the-shoulder catch in shallow left field led to Houston’s first run and put Cooper Hummel and Shay Whitcomb on first and second base. They scored successively by just a few feet, after taking off just before Cam Smith connected on a double that one-hopped the wall.

The floodgates opened further after Seattle’s bullpen took over, with another six runs.

“It sucks,” Woo said. “Frustrating, to say the least, especially because I just feel like a lot of it's on me.”

Seattle (53-46) still remains on solid ground, occupying the second AL Wild Card spot in a tie with Boston, though those teams hold only a 1 1/2-game edge over Tampa Bay for the final spot.

The more pressing playoff picture centers on the division. The Mariners haven’t won the AL West since 2001 and in doing so this year would either host a best-of-three AL Wild Card Series instead of going on the road -- or bypass it altogether if they finish with at least the league’s second-best record.

But doing so will necessitate the club supplanting the division’s decade-long stalwarts, with a missed opportunity to do more direct damage on Sunday.