Astros Deck the Swabs

Astros defeat Mariners 6 -1

contributed by Sphinx Drummond

It was almost the end of magic Wednesday and the clock was ticking down. It was a quarter to midnight and the Astros were trailing the Seattle Mariners by a score of one to nothing. The Astros had lost the previous six games in a row and were looking at a last chance ninth inning to stop the flow of losses.

Jordan Lyles pitched a real nice game, scattering 3 hits and 2 walks across 7 innings while striking out 10 batters. His mound opponent, Jeremy Bonderman was equally up to the task going 8 innings, surrendering 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5.

Hector Ambriz faced two batters in the 8th without retiring one, though one reached base on an error to Marwin Gonzalez. Travis Blackley relieved Ambriz and got two outs before giving up a single to Nick Franklin that allowed Endy Chavez to score the Mariners’ only run. Paul Clemens came in and got the last out of the eighth.

Tom Wilhelmsen came in to close the game for Seattle but Jason Castro had another plan as he singled to center. J. D. Martinez liked Castro’s plan and singled to left, moving Castro to second. Carlos Corporan agreed with the plan and sacrificed himself for the plan, moving Castro to third, and Martinez to second.

Wihelmsen was thinking about a change in plans and intentionally walked Carlos Pena to load the bases for Chris Carter, who had plans of his own and doubled to deep left, scoring Castro and Trevor Crowe (who had come in to pinch run for J. D.), and moving Pena to third. Jimmy Paredes came in to pinch run for Carter. Wilhelmsen, realizing his plan wasn’t working, intentionally walked Matt Dominguez and then vacated the mound for Yoervis Medina to take over.

Yoervis Medina first batter was Brandon Barnes who singled to left, scoring Pena and moving Paredes, who should have scored, to third and Dominguez to second. The next batter, Marwin Gonzalez, struck out swinging. Jose Altuve followed with a single that scored Paredes and Dominguez and moved Barnes to third.

Charlie Furbush (love that name) came in to relieve Medina and walked Castro, then walked Crowe, scoring Barnes for the sixth run of the inning. With two out and the bases loaded Furbush got Corporan to strike out and end the Astros half of the ninth. Clemens stayed in for a three-up-three-down ninth and 6-1 victory.

It was about 15 minutes to 12 pm (CST) when the Astros last chance inning started. By the time the clock struck midnight, the Astros had scored six runs. The team found their focus and attacked Seattle’s weaknesses, or the Wednesday magic happened, or Wodan woke up from his nap. Whatever, the team staged a sweet come from behind victory. It was severely needed and stopped the losing streak at six games.

The Astros’ avoided the series sweep and raised their record for Wednesday games to 8 and 3. The Astros have Thursday off and come home to begin a series against the White Sox on Friday.