HOUSTON -- Logan Gilbert finished the first half of the season with back-to-back stellar starts thanks to a change in pitch selection.

Gilbert threw seven strong innings in the Mariners’ 3-1 win over Houston on Sunday afternoon at Minute Maid Park, helping his team take three out of four from the second-place Astros to head into the All-Star break.

The right-hander followed up his shutout win over the Giants on Tuesday by surrendering one run on three hits with six strikeouts against the Astros.

“I always have high expectations and standards and want to help the team, especially when we were going through a little rough stretch,” Gilbert said. “It seems like everybody is playing well, the whole team right now. I’m just trying to step up and do my part when it’s my day.”

Gilbert (7-5) relied mostly on his slider and four-seam fastball. He threw 36 sliders, sitting right around 90 mph with the pitch. His 28 fastballs in the outing were consistently between 95 and 97 mph through his seven frames.

“Awesome job by Logan today,” manager Scott Servais said. “What a trip he’s had. A complete game, then today, just on top of his stuff. We’ve really seen the emergence of his breaking balls. The slider, the curveball. He still has a good fastball, but he’s really pitching well. Not just throwing well. He’s pitching well.”

Servais said throwing the slider as much as Gilbert did was part of the plan.

“I thought he threw an outstanding slider in San Francisco the other day,” Servais said. “He carried it over into today’s game. If you look at the development -- and we talk about our pitching development all the time -- these guys are not a finished product. Even Logan, as established as he is in this league, he’s focused on getting better, and the quality of his secondary pitches has gone through the roof.”

The Astros did not get a lot of hard contact against Gilbert, hitting just one ball with an exit velocity of over 100 mph. Martín Maldonado’s solo home run in the sixth was hit at an exit velocity of 99.9 mph and barely got over the fence and the glove of Teoscar Hernández.

“Anything you leave over the plate, they have a good shot at it, especially against the fastball,” Gilbert said. “I think just a steady mix today. Cal [Raleigh] did a great job. … The way we mixed up pitches. I felt like the slider was good. I went to the curveball late, and that helped out a lot.”

Gilbert improved to 6-1 with a 3.26 ERA in 11 starts on the road this season. For his career, Gilbert improved to 19-4 with a 3.58 ERA away from Seattle.

Matt Brash worked a scoreless eighth, and Paul Sewald pitched the ninth for his 17th save.

Seattle opened a 3-0 lead in the fourth on an RBI double by Hernández and a two-run double by Jarred Kelenic. The three runs were all Gilbert needed, and the victory put the Mariners back above .500 at the break at 45-44 after winning seven of their last nine games.

“It’s definitely good to finish the first half rolling,” J.P. Crawford said. “We get these couple days to check out, regroup and finish strong. We ended the first half on a positive note, and hopefully, we keep it going when we get back.”

Seattle sits six games back of first place Texas in the AL West and four games out of the last AL Wild Card spot entering the break following the 5-2 road trip through San Francisco and Houston.

“Really outstanding road trip,” Servais said. “We needed to respond. Our guys certainly did. We played against two really good teams and to win their last series in a row gives us a little boost going into the All-Star break.

“It hasn’t been an easy first half. There have been some struggles, but you look at where we’re at now, and we’re a game over .500. We’ll get a chance to catch our breath a little bit for four days and come out and hopefully, get back after it on the homestand.”