Randy Arozarena walked with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning to bring home the decisive run as the Seattle Mariners rallied to defeat the visiting Houston Astros 7-6 on Wednesday afternoon.
Seattle trailed 5-0 before Arozarena hit a grand slam in the eighth inning and Julio Rodriguez added a two-run double in the ninth to even the score at 6.
Mariners reliever Casey Lawrence (1-0) got the victory and Houston’s Bryan Abreu (0-1) took the loss.
Trailing 6-4 entering the bottom of the ninth, the Astros brought in Abreu after closer Josh Hader had worked the previous two nights.
Donovan Solano led off with a single to right and, one out later, Miles Mastrobuoni singled to center, sending Solano to third. J.P. Crawford hit a chopper to third baseman Isaac Paredes, who tried to tag Solano as he retreated to the bag. Solano was originally called out, but the Mariners challenged the call and it was reversed on video review, leaving the bases loaded with one out.
Rodriguez lined a double down the right-field line to tie the score and Mitch Garver walked. The Astros threw out Crawford at home on Cal Raleigh’s grounder to first baseman Christian Walker for the second out, but Abreu’s 3-2 slider was high and out of the strike zone to bring home the winning run.
The Astros took the lead with three runs in the second off Seattle starter Luis F. Castillo.
Houston added a run in the third on a bases-loaded walk by Brendan Rodgers.
The score remained 4-0 until the eighth. Cam Smith lined a one-out single to right and advanced to second on Jose Altuve’s single to center. Paredes grounded an infield single off Lawrence to load the bases and Yordan Alvarez brought home the run with a sacrifice fly to left.
In the bottom of the inning, Mastrobuoni lined a leadoff single to right off Luis Contreras and Crawford and Rodriguez walked. Steven Okert came in and got Garver to fly out to shallow left and struck out Raleigh before Arozarena lifted a fly ball just over the left-field wall to make it 5-4.
The Astros added an insurance run in the ninth as Jeremy Pena led off with a double, stole third an out later and scored on a wild pitch by Lawrence.
Houston starter Hunter Brown allowed two hits over six scoreless innings, didn’t walk a batter and struck out three.
Castillo allowed four runs (three earned) and six hits over four innings. He walked five and struck out three.
