Mariners cap road trip with 1st series win in Houston since '18

HOUSTON -- Nearly four years and 30 long, exhausting and psychologically burdensome games later, the Mariners finally came, saw and conquered their house of horrors.

With a 6-3 victory over the Astros on Wednesday, they won a series at Minute Maid Park for the first time since September 2018, a venue that they recognize they’ll need to successfully navigate if they hope to snap their 20-year playoff drought. And particularly after being swept here last month, a much more competitive showing this week represented a huge step in the right direction, perhaps serving as an early-summer spark.

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Last month, the club was more guarded with public commentary on its struggles here, but this series was different. Did the players feel the need to prove -- to the league, to the Astros and perhaps even themselves -- that they’re capable of winning here?

“You have to eventually get to that point, or we're never going to win the [AL] West,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “That’s where it's at. I thought we played really well against them at home, but it's different in this ballpark. They're really tough to beat here.”

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The only players who were around for that series win in 2018 and were on the roster Wednesday are Marco Gonzales and Matthew Festa -- and it was the kids who contributed most this week.

Cal Raleigh crushed a game-tying homer in the fourth inning on Tuesday -- just after Logan Gilbert had surrendered the lead -- his second homer of the week. Raleigh finished the series with six RBIs, all critical.

Gilbert navigated six innings against a pesky Astros lineup that was aggressively swinging early in counts and forcing him to adjust without swing-and-miss stuff. He positioned relievers Andrés Muñoz, Paul Sewald and Diego Castillo well by leaving with a lead.

And earlier this week, Julio Rodríguez delivered a decisive ninth-inning dagger in an emotional win after both benches cleared on Monday. That tension didn’t spill over on Wednesday, when Rodríguez was hit by fastballs in consecutive plate appearances and exhibited angst after the second. But a lingering rift between these clubs, who meet just twice more at each ballpark, is worth watching.

Raleigh, Rodríguez and Gilbert were growing up in the Minors as the Astros owned the AL West, and though they perhaps don’t have as strong of a grasp as to how challenging this venue has been to Seattle, the experience they gained this week -- against a first-place team that has represented the division’s established order -- was significant.

“Yeah, definitely,” Gilbert said. “I think we’ve got a nice mix of young guys, veterans, people in between, and to have the young guys kind of step up was huge.”

Added Raleigh: “It’s a tough lineup, especially when you play here. They're really good at home, so you have to be on.”

Gonzales, who didn’t pitch this series, knows better than anyone 1) the challenges of overcoming Houston’s hitter-friendly environment, 2) how difficult it is to hang onto a game here, with the threat of an offensive outbreak at any moment and, more symbolically, 3) how much has changed within the Mariners’ organization since the last time they took two of three in the Astros’ confines.

“I think collectively as a group, it just gives us a lot of confidence going forward to come in here and win a series,” Gonzales said. “Because I would say in our division, this is probably the toughest place to play. And it was a great experience for [the young guys], but for the group, it was a huge, huge win for us.”

Beyond this three-gamer at Minute Maid Park, Seattle capped its nine-game road trip with its sixth win, victorious in each series in this weave through Baltimore, Arlington and Houston. It was also the Mariners’ first winning road trip of the season after beginning the year with losses in 18 of their 26 games away from T-Mobile Park, the worst road record in the Majors at that point.

And after brutal travel through the first two months, covering more than 24,000 miles following Wednesday night’s charter back to Seattle, the Mariners will now play 22 of their next 30 at home.

“Guys, they grind, and we're starting to understand what that's about,” Servais said. “Guys, you get a long road trip, you've got late travel. Guys are tired. You have to grind through it if you want to win, and I think they do want to win in a really bad way.”