SEATTLE -- Tensions typically run high when the Mariners and Astros face off, and their well-chronicled back-and-forths added another dramatic episode that featured four hit batters, a game-tying RBI groundout off the knob of Dylan Moore's bat and, fittingly, a walk-off from rookie Cole Young in Seattle’s 6-5 win on Saturday night at T-Mobile Park.
“That game was wild,” Moore said.
Young, all of 21 years old, has now orchestrated two of Seattle’s five walk-offs this season, after yanking a 1-2 splitter from reliever Héctor Neris with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning -- which came exactly seven weeks after his walk-off fielder’s choice in his MLB debut on May 31.
“This is what you play for,” Young said. “It's just the competitiveness between each other. It's awesome. To be part of that moment, it's amazing.”
With the win, the Mariners pulled to within three games from first place in the American League West and have now won five straight dating back to last weekend’s sweep over the MLB-leading Tigers. Seattle also reclaimed the head-to-head tiebreaker with Houston, five games to four, with four games to play in 2025.
The walk-off was the night’s most defining moment, but there were so many sequences that set its stage.
The most bizarre came from Moore, who’s in the midst of a brutal mid-summer stretch but kept the game alive with an RBI groundout that actually made contact with the knob end of his bat and rolled into play. Houston challenged the call, believing it to instead be a hit-by-pitch -- which itself carried irony given that warnings had been in place since the sixth inning due to a series of HBPs -- but the ruling was upheld.
“It scared the [expletive] out of me, to be honest,” Moore said. “So the original shock was, like, making sure that my hand was OK, but then the ball goes forward and I realize my hand is not hurting as bad as it would be if I was actually hit by a 96 mph fastball.”
In the midst of the chaos, Cal Raleigh raced home to score the tying run, in a just-in-case measure had the play instead been ruled a HBP.
“That's a big-time, heads-up play,” Moore said.
From Houston’s clubhouse, first baseman Christian Walker added: “Incredible bad luck for us. But also like, I wonder, just how he reacted, why it wasn't ruled a hit-by-pitch? ... Because if it's a hit-by-pitch, they can't challenge that it wasn't a hit-by-pitch, then it would’ve been bases loaded and we still have a shot, or maybe a double play or something.”
Raleigh’s run marked the second time that Seattle had tied the game by being aggressive off of third base, as Randy Arozarena had also evened things up at 5-5 in the eighth on a wild pitch from Bryan Abreu. That sequence surfaced after Houston’s leverage reliever remained in the game following a 97 mph hit-by-pitch on Donovan Solano despite warnings being in place.
Were the Mariners surprised that Abreu -- who now has four blown saves this season, all against the Mariners -- wasn’t ejected at that point?
“Tough to call,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “It's tough in those situations. And they made the call that they made, and we just stuck with it and tried to win a ballgame.”
The warnings were issued following consecutive hit batters by Mariners reliever Carlos Vargas in the sixth that led to shouting from both dugouts. Things never escalated beyond that point other than chirping from both teams, though Houston seized momentum by mounting three runs immediately after to take a one-run lead.
Vargas nicked No. 9 hitter Brice Mathews off his right cheek with a 97 mph four-seam fastball, just after the rookie squared around on a bunt attempt. Two pitches later, Vargas hit Zack Short in the back with a sinker that ignited Houston’s dugout.
After some chirping, notably from Astros veteran Mauricio Dubón, Mariners bench coach Manny Acta was seen with the most animated gestures in return from the home dugout, at which point crew chief Todd Tichenor issued the warnings to both sides.
The Astros leveraged the moment’s momentum to reclaim the lead, albeit one that didn’t last. They plated three in that sixth and four unanswered overall before Young stopped the bleeding with an over-the-shoulder catch in shallow right field to keep it a 5-4 game.
When these teams meet, it’s typically always spicy -- which could create even more drama down the stretch, especially given that they appear to be on a collision course to determine the division’s fate.