George Kirby pitched six strong innings, Julio Rodriguez joined the 20-20 club and the Seattle Mariners kept pace in the playoff race with an 8-1 win over the host Houston Astros on Wednesday in the decisive game of a three-game series.
Seattle (82-77) remained 2 1/2 games behind the final two American League wild-card spots after the Kansas City Royals (84-74) and Detroit Tigers (84-74) both won later Wednesday. The Minnesota Twins (82-76) also posted a victory on Wednesday, and they are just two games back of Kansas City and Detroit.
The Mariners have three games remaining, while the Royals, Tigers and Twins each have four left. Detroit, Kansas City and Minnesota all own tiebreakers over Seattle.
Houston (86-73) clinched its fourth straight AL West title with a 4-3 win over Seattle on Tuesday. The Astros will host a best-of-three wild-card series starting Oct. 1.
Justin Turner put Seattle ahead 2-1 in the sixth on his two-out single with the bases loaded against Houston left-hander Yusei Kikuchi (9-10).
That was enough support for Kirby (14-11), who limited the Astros to one run on four hits and one walk with six strikeouts.
Kikuchi, formerly with the Mariners, was charged with two runs (none earned) on four hits and one walk over six frames. He tallied eight strikeouts, including his 200th of the season.
Astros rookie Shay Whitcomb committed four errors after replacing veteran Alex Bregman at third base in the fourth inning.
Bregman, an impending free agent who has won two World Series with Houston, was pulled from his potential last regular-season home game and received a nice ovation as he exited.
Victor Caratini’s two-out RBI single put the Astros ahead 1-0 in the third inning.
Kikuchi stymied the Mariners until Seattle loaded the bases with one out in the sixth without hitting a ball out of the infield.
Dylan Moore reached on Whitcomb’s first error and Victor Robles walked to start the inning. Cal Raleigh had an infield hit with one out before Turner came through after Randy Arozarena struck out.
Mitch Garver’s home run against Shawn Dubin leading off the seventh put the Mariners up 3-1. Whitcomb committed two more errors in the inning, including a bad throw that scored Robles from second to make it 5-1.
Whitcomb’s fourth error in the ninth led to another run before Rodriguez closed the scoring with his 20th homer this season, a two-run shot. Rodriguez has 24 steals this season for his third straight 20-20 campaign.
–Field Level Media
