SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners were just shy of a sweep Sunday at T-Mobile Park.
Marco Gonzales earned a standing ovation after another solid performance against the Houston Astros, and Ty France’s hitting streak reached 11 games. He sent in the run that tied the game at 1.
But Yordan Alvarez’s line-drive single to left field with the bases loaded gave the Astros a 2-1 lead in the top of the eighth which turned out to be the final score. The Mariners had the tying run at third, but Luis Torrens’ grounder gave way to a double play to end the game.
Houston’s Jeremy Peña launched the first pitch he saw over the center-field fence in the second inning. The Mariners didn’t put a potential tying run on base until Luis Garcia walked Eugenio Suarez during the fifth.
In the sixth, Torrens singled off a hard line drive to right field. France did the same two outs later, sending in Torrens and advancing to second on a throwing error.
With two outs this season, France sat first in the league in hits (24) and batting average (.414). His 19 RBI were tied for the lead.
The Mariners turned in 6-1 and 6-0 victories in the first two games against the first-place Astros. After falling to last in the AL West, the Mariners won back-to-back games for the first time in more than a month.
Logan Gilbert turned in a standout effort Saturday and Gonzales offered a worthy reprise. Through 7 1/3 innings, he finished with 59 strikes on 96 pitches with five hits, two earned runs, a walk and two2 strikeouts. He left the game in the top of the eighth inning to applause following Martin Maldonado’s ground-rule double down the left-field line.
The Mariners’ last series sweep of the Astros was August 9-12, 2018 in Houston. It hasn’t happened in Seattle.
