HOUSTON — Robinson Cano wouldn’t let the Mariners lose this game. He wouldn’t let their playoff hopes fade into next season, not yet.
Having already homered earlier in the game to provide one of the precious few runs for Seattle on Monday night, Cano did it again in the 11th inning to put his team up for good.
Cano crushed a hanging slider from Luke Gregerson into the right field upper deck of Minute Maid Park. The solo blast — his 35th of the season — provided the difference in the Mariners’ 4-3 win over the Astros.
Of course, it couldn’t be simple to close it out. Reliever Nick Vincent gave up back-to-back one-out singles to put the tying and winning run on base. But he came back to strike out Evan Gattis and get pinch-hitter Yuli Gurriel to pop out to end the game.
With the win, Seattle improved to 83-73 and moved two games out of the second wild card and into a tie with the Tigers, who lost in Cleveland.
That it went to extra innings was a stunner.
Brought on to close out a 3-1 lead, closer Edwin Diaz blew his third save opportunity since taking over the late-inning duties, giving up two runs and coming ever so close to allowing the winning run to advance.
After back-to-back singles to start the inning, a failed double play on Jose Altuve’s ground ball to third allowed a run to score to make it 3-2. Altuve later stole third and scored easily on Carlos Correa’s RBI single to left field to tie the score at 3. A single from Gattis moved the winning run to third. But Diaz struck out Tyler White and got Tom Kemp to pop out to first to send the game into extra innings.
The Mariners exited the top of the ninth with that inexplicable 3-1 lead thanks to an awful field gaffe by Astros reliever James Hoyt. Up 2-1, Ketel Marte singled with one out. With two strikes, Ben Gamel bunted the ball back to the mound — a curious decision to be certain. But it worked. Hoyt fielded the ball and rushed his throw to first, throwing it high and over the head of White at first base. The ball bounced up into right field foul territory. Marte scored all the way from first on the miscue.
The Mariners fared better than they had in their previous outing, a 6-0 loss, against Astros starter Collin McHugh. In fact, they got two runs against the right-hander.
A one-out walk from Seth Smith and a double from Cano into right field got things going. Nelson Cruz scored Smith on a ground out to shortstop.
Seattle squandered a prime scoring opportunity in the second inning. Adam Lind and Leonys Martin started the inning off with back-to-back singles and their aggressive baserunning put runners on second and third with no outs. But Mike Zunino’s fly ball to right wasn’t deep enough for Lind to tag. Marte struck out and Norichika Aoki flied out to left to strand the runners.
Cano’s massive bounce back season now includes a personal best in homers. With one out in the third inning, he hammered a 1-1 cutter from McHugh into the Astros’ bullpen for a solo homer and a 2-0 Mariners lead.
Seattle got a solid start from Hisashi Iwakuma. The veteran right-hander pitched six innings, giving up one run on four hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
After being held scoreless for the first five innings, Houston finally scratched out a run in the sixth with a little help from plate umpire Gary Cederstrom. With one out, Iwakuma appeared to have thrown strike three on a 2-2 fastball on the outside corner. Cederstrom called it a ball, much to the displeasure of Iwakuma and the Mariners’ bench. Jake Marisnick drew a walk two pitches later and then raced home on Marwin Gonzalez’s two-out double into the right corner, cutting the Mariners’ lead to 2-1.
Houston appeared to have tied the score when Mariners’ nemesis Altuve slapped a hard line drive to left field. But with the left field at Minute Maid so short and the ball being hit so hard, Aoki was able to field the ball on one hop, gather himself and make a perfect one-hop throw home to Zunino. The ball beat Gonzalez by five steps. He didn’t even attempt a slide and was tagged out to end the inning.
The Mariners’ first hit with a runner in scoring position occurred in the eighth inning. It didn’t score a run. In fact it didn’t even move the runner up. With Cruz on second base, Kyle Seager appeared to have a smooth line drive single to center. But the ball’s path to the outfield grass was interrupted by the thigh of second-base umpire Jim Wolf. The ball dropped to the infield grass instead. Wolf immediately ruled dead ball and Cruz was sent back to second. By rule, Cruz could have at least advanced to third if there would have been a runner on first, but since it was unoccupied, he had to stay. It was a tough break. The Mariners got nothing in the inning. Lind grounded out softly to first moving the runners up a base, but Martin struck out to end the inning.
