HOUSTON (AP) — Carlos Correa drove in the winning run in the 10th inning after Alex Bregman tied the game in the ninth, and the Houston Astros rallied past the Seattle Mariners 5-4 on Tuesday night.
Correa greeted Yohan Ramirez (1-3) with a ground-rule double to right-center, scoring Yuli Gurriel, who started the inning at second.
“It was an important outing for us knowing that they have been playing great baseball,” Correa said. “They’re close in the division, they’re hungry and want to win, so we just had to go out there and make a statement in this series.”
Bregman tied it with a two-run home run off the train tracks in left field off Paul Sewald in the bottom of the ninth.
“We want to play good baseball down the stretch and stay healthy and build some momentum of playing good baseball, winning baseball,” Bregman said. “I think we’re doing a good job of that.”
Houston manager Dusty Baker called the win “as big of a victory as we have had probably all year.”
“He’s been known for that,” Baker said of Bregman’s home run. “He’s been hitting the ball pretty well, and you know a homer was due.”
Sewald walked José Altuve to lead off the ninth, and Michael Brantley flew out to Mitch Haniger in front of the wall in right-center before Bregman’s blast.
“Sewald wasn’t quite as sharp as we have seen him the majority of the year,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “He fell behind in the count tonight, and that’s kind of been his thing is to control the counts, get ahead and finish guys off. He struggled to do that tonight.”
Ryne Stanek (2-4) pitched a perfect 10th for the win.
The Mariners failed to advance Tom Murphy, who began the 10th on second. Dylan Moore popped up a bunt to lead off the inning before two flyouts.
“We do need to execute,” Servais said “We haven’t done a good job of that. The funny thing is, we had like five guys out early working on getting bunts down and things like that because we know we are going to play a lot of close games. … You can practice it all you want, but you need to execute it during the game, and we weren’t able to do that tonight.”
Kyle Seager hit a solo home run to right to lead off the sixth, giving the Mariners a 3-2 lead. It was Seager’s 34th home run of the season and 18th since the All Star break.
J.P. Crawford tied it at two in the fifth with a two-run double. Luis Torrens extended Seattle’s advantage to 4-2 with an RBI single in the ninth.
Altuve hit a solo home run off the foul pole in left with two outs in the third. After Brantley singled, Bregman hit an RBI double that pushed the lead to 2-0. Brantley had three hits for the Astros.
Houston was 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position, while Seattle was 2 for 10.
Jake Odorizzi allowed two runs on five hits with three strikeouts in five innings.
Logan Gilbert permitted two runs on six hits with five strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mariners: OF Kyle Lewis, who was originally placed on the injured list since June 1 with a right meniscus tear, has been shut down for the rest of the season with a bone bruise in his right knee, Servais said.
Astros: RHP Forrest Whitley, who underwent Tommy John surgery on March 17, has started a throwing program at the Astros’ complex in Florida, according to the team.
CLUTCH CATCH
Kyle Tucker made a jumping snag against the right field wall of a flyball by J.P. Crawford in the top of the 10th to keep the game tied.
“Lost in the shuffle was the play Tucker made in right field,” Baker said. “That was a huge play because I thought that ball had a chance to get out of here. Tuck made a great play.”
UP NEXT
Mariners: LHP Tyler Andreson (6-9, 4.08 ERA) will make his eighth start with the Mariners on Wednesday. The left-hander is 1-1 with a 3.38 ERA with the Mariners since being acquired on July 28 from Pittsburgh.
Astros: RHP José Urquidy (6-3, 3.42 ERA) will make his second start since coming off the IL when he takes the mound on Wednesday in the series finale. Urquidy threw 4 1/3 innings, allowing two runs against the Padres on Friday.
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