Hector Neris escaped a none-out, bases-loaded jam in the top of the eighth inning and Martin Maldonado clubbed a tie-breaking home run in the bottom of the inning as the Houston Astros beat the Seattle Mariners 3-2 on Saturday.
Maldonado snapped a 2-2 deadlock with his sixth home run, a 371-foot shot to left-center field off Mariners reliever Andres Munoz (2-2). Maldonado ended an 0-for-23 slump and capitalized on the Houdini act performed by Neris a half-inning earlier.
Neris (5-2) loaded the bases in the top of the eighth with a pair of walks and a hit batsman but rallied to retire pinch-hitters Cal Raleigh and Mike Ford before getting a called third strike on Jose Caballero. Astros closer Ryan Pressly earned his 20th save in the ninth.
Astros left-hander Framber Valdez labored a bit in his first start after missing one turn in the rotation with right ankle soreness. He retired the side in order twice in his six innings, and after being spotted an early two-run lead, surrendered that advantage by the fourth inning.
Caballero opened the third with a single before stealing second and third. He scored when J.P. Crawford produced an infield single that sliced the deficit to 2-1. In the fourth, Caballero singled to center to plate Teoscar Hernandez, who hit a leadoff double, with the tying run.
Valdez allowed two runs on five hits with two walks and six strikeouts but needed 105 pitches to complete six innings.
Mariners rookie right-hander Bryan Woo surrendered three consecutive one-out hits in the first. Kyle Tucker followed a Jeremy Pena single with a run-scoring double to right, giving Houston a 1-0 lead. Tucker later scored when Alex Bregman lined a single to left that ricocheted off the glove of third baseman Eugenio Suarez.
Woo limited the damage by retiring Jose Abreu and Yainer Diaz, starting a dominant stretch where he retired 16 consecutive batters. Woo recorded eight groundball outs, four flyouts and four strikeouts during a run that ended when Tucker walked with two outs in the sixth.
Woo allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits and one walk with four strikeouts,
–Field Level Media
