SEATTLE -- The Mariners were reminded on Saturday how heavily their lineup is leaning on their first three hitters, and a quiet night from Mitch Haniger, Ty France and Kyle Seager loomed large in a 1-0 defeat to Houston.

Seattle’s Nos. 1-3 hitters in the order went a combined 1-for-12, thanks in part due to a superb start from Astros ace Zack Greinke. And with the hot-hitting trio up top having its first collective cold night, the lack of production from the lower leg of the lineup became far more pronounced.

The Mariners’ Nos. 4-9 hitters entered the night with a collective slash line of .194/.282/.318, well below the combined mark of .313/.374/.531 from Haniger, France and Seager. On Saturday, everyone from cleanup and lower went 3-for-18 with four strikeouts and no walks.

José Marmolejos and Evan White were in business against Greinke by each lacing a single to lead off the sixth inning, but Dylan Moore popped out to first baseman Yuli Gurriel and J.P. Crawford followed by hitting into a 1-5-6 double play that was an impressive piece of defense for Greinke, a six-time Gold Glove Award winner. Crawford also had a single in the third, but he was left on base by consecutive strikeouts from Sam Haggerty and Haniger.

The Mariners on Saturday simply ran out of time for the late-game magic that they’ve made their trademark in the first two-plus weeks of the season.

“Really, we’ve been swinging the bat awesome. We really have, driven by the guys at the top of the order,” said manager Scott Servais. “Greinke shut down those guys tonight. I thought Evan swung the bat well tonight. J.P. was on it well, but we hit some balls hard that were caught. But for the most part, like I said, you can't do anything. You go up there, you compete, you battle. You hope you can put an inning together. … We just didn’t hit tonight.”

Some of their offensive issues have been masked by the remarkable consistency of Haniger, France and Seager. Each of those three has propelled the Mariners to at least one win thus far. France had an 11-pitch walk that set up a three-run comeback against the White Sox last week. Haniger’s 10th-inning sacrifice fly last Saturday helped Seattle take two of three against the powerhouse Twins. And Seager had game-winning hits in Minnesota and Baltimore on the 5-2 road trip.

“The coaches come up with a plan. We've got an approach, but it's really driven by those three players,” manager Scott Servais said. “And it's good for everybody in the room to hear their thoughts. Hani’s going to have thoughts. Seags has got thought. Ty France isn't afraid of anybody. I don't care what they throw, what the situation is, he believes he is going square everybody up. So that does, it permeates. It rubs off on guys. And we're seeing that with young guys starting to believe they can.”

But beyond that trio, the Mariners have received marginal production from the rest of the order, though there have been promising signs that other contributors can get in on the mix. In Friday’s come-from-behind, 6-5 win, White’s game-tying home run in the eighth inning and Crawford’s leadoff walk in the ninth were just as critical for the Mariners as France’s walk-off line drive.

Crawford extended his hit streak to eight games on Saturday, but his expected batting average entering the day was nearly 50 points lower than his actual batting average, which is backed by his quality of contact ranking in the seventh percentile, per Statcast. All but one of Crawford’s 14 hits have been singles.

White can rake with the very best of them, evidenced by his 110.7 mph blast on Friday, and while his strikeout rate has dipped from the Majors’ second-highest in 2020, it entered Friday at 29.4 percent.

Moore and Tom Murphy, who were breakout players in each of the past two seasons, have yet to get going, with a combined 10 hits in 79 plate appearances. Moore has been dropped in the lineup the past four games down to the Nos. 7 and 8 spots. Luis Torrens has been getting more action at catcher than Murphy, though some of that is dictated by matchups.

Marmolejos has two towering homers this season and been a nice fill-in at cleanup while Kyle Lewis recovers from a bone bruise in his knee. But the Mariners have held him out against lefties due to his .167/.310/.292 slash line and 33% strikeout rate against southpaws.

And Taylor Trammell was held out of Saturday’s lineup to get a mental breather after going 2-for-17 with seven strikeouts since crushing his second homer Sunday in Minnesota. Trammell was the darling of Spring Training, but some of the concerns about his ability to his secondary pitching have manifested early. He’s seen 46 such offerings and whiffed against 22 of them.

Help is on the way, however, in the form of Lewis, who is on track to be activated from the injured list during the upcoming Dodgers series, which begins Monday. Lewis was the Mariners’ top run producer last season, leading the team in homers (11), OPS (.800), wRC+ (126) and WAR (1.6), while hitting .262/.364/.437 and playing in 58 of the club’s 60 games. And at some point in the next month or so, No. 1 prospect Jarred Kelenic will be up.

While the Mariners have shown poise in four comebacks of three runs or more, they understand that more consistent production from the lower lineup will be vital to sustained success in 2021.