SEATTLE — At 1:10 p.m. on what was a perfect afternoon for baseball at T-Mobile Park, Robbie Ray fired his first pitch of the game to Jose Altuve.
Before the clock had turned to 1:11 p.m., the Houston Astros had a lead they would never relinquish in what would be an 8-5 victory over the Mariners.
Manager Scott Servais often says that two wins in a row isn't a winning streak. It takes three games to be constituted as a streak. It's assumed that the same math counts for losing streaks.
And the Mariners have a losing streak of three games after winning 14 in a from coming into the All-Star break.
While being swept at home should always be disappointing and even somewhat embarrassing, being swept at home in front of large crowds and with the buildup and anticipation for the "second half" of the 2022 season should be something worse. Though it's not altogether surprising considering history of the team and the opponent.
Three consecutive losses won't scuttle the Mariners' playoff chances or damn the season. And with the Rangers coming to Seattle for a three-game series starting Monday, it likely won't continue for long. But beyond winning streaks and strong stretches of baseball, the Astros provided a three-game reminder of who still owns the American League West and what the Mariners might face in the postseason.
The Mariners won the two previous series against the Astros — one at Minute Maid Park and one at T-Mobile — and will wrap up the season series with a four-games set to start the upcoming road trip, which begins Thursday.
Even with Julio Rodriguez out of the lineup for the third straight game because of wrist soreness, the Mariners hoped that Ray's recent run of success, which includes the addition of that two-seam fastball, might offset his struggles against Houston.
After giving up four runs on eight hits with three walks and three strikeouts in a 7-4 loss on June 6, Ray had made seven starts, posting a 3-0 record with a 1.36 ERA, including 58 strikeouts and 11 walks in 46 1/3 innings. Opposing hitters had a .151/.270/.490 slash line against him over that span.
But Ray's meandering command of his pitches and the Astros' consistent hard contact this season resulted in Ray pitching just three innings, giving up six runs on 10 hits with no walks and only one strikeout.
The now-traditional boos that greet Altuve every time he steps to the plate were still emanating from the announced crowd of 34,827 when Ray fired a 93-mph sinker to start the game.
The pitch, which he was forced to start using midgame after being knocked around by the Astros in their previous meeting, leaked into the lower inside half of the plate. Altuve didn't hesitate, yanking it deep into the left-field stands.
Fans were too stunned to boo the leadoff homer at first.
It would only get worse for Ray as he slogged his way through one of his worst starts of the season.
Rookie shortstop Jeremy Pena, the next hitter in the lineup, matched Altuve's result with a solo homer into Edgar's Cantina. Unlike Altuve, Pena didn't ambush the first pitch. After seeing five straight sliders from Ray, fouling off two of them and not chasing the other three out of the zone, Pena jumped the sixth slider he saw from Ray, a 3-2 pitch that was also on the lower inside half of the strike zone.
Two batters faced, two homers and a 2-0 deficit? Not an ideal situation for Ray or the Mariners.
The second inning offered no semblance of a rhythm or improvement.
Ray allowed five consecutive hits to start the second inning, while all of them weren't hit particularly hard, they still weren't caught even if Mauricio Dubon's ground-rule double to left or Martin Maldonado's soft single could have been outs.
It still resulted in three runs scored and a 5-0 deficit before the Mariners had even batted for a second time.
Houston made it 6-0 in the third inning when Yuli Gurriel lead off with a double and later scored on a fielders choice. With Ray at 62 pitches and no signs of it turning, the Mariners went to the bullpen. The three innings pitched were the fewest Ray had thrown this season and the first time he failed to pitch at least five innings. It was his shortest outing since Sept. 11, 2019 when he was with Arizona.
Meanwhile, Astros starter Framber Valdez cruised through the first six innings without allowing a run and allowing four base runners. The Mariners finally broke through in the seventh. With two outs, Sam Haggerty tripled into the left-center gap and J.P. Crawford with an RBI double to right that ended Valdez's outing.
But right-hander Seth Martinez was able to end the threat, striking out Ty France swinging to end the inning.
The Astros picked up two more runs in the eighth inning. Matt Festa inherited a bases loaded mess from Tommy Milone and gave up another bloop single to Maldonado that made it 8-3. Those two runs loomed large when Abrahm Toro hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning off Martinez.
