(Photo credit score: Kevin Ng-Imagn Images)
Despite their uneven begin to this season, the Seattle Mariners have been in a position to depend on their stellar pitching employees, with the opener of their four-game collection towards the Houston Astros offering the newest instance of that reliability.
The Mariners’ 3-1 highway victory over Houston on Monday was punctuated by 5 pitchers combining for 13 strikeouts towards three walks. Seattle entered the collection main the majors in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.48) and elevated its totals to 358 strikeouts towards 102 walks by 42 video games.
The Mariners additionally prolonged their profitable streak towards the Astros to eight video games — the longest within the historical past of the collection between the American League West rivals — and can attempt to make it 9 in a row on Tuesday evening in Houston.
‘There’s all the time a bit elevated that means to enjoying right here,’ Seattle supervisor Dan Wilson mentioned. ‘There’s quite a lot of historical past that we have had right here with these two groups.’
Right-hander Bryan Woo (2-2, 4.02 ERA) has the beginning project for the Mariners on Tuesday.
After permitting 13 mixed runs throughout 9 innings in a pair of no-decisions, Woo threw six shutout innings Wednesday in a 3-1 win over the Atlanta Braves in his earlier begin, with one hit, two walks and a season-high 9 strikeouts on his ledger. That marked his sixth begin with one or fewer hits and five-plus innings because the starting of final season, tied with Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto for probably the most within the majors throughout that span.
Woo is 2-2 with a 2.83 ERA in 5 profession begins towards the Astros. In his earlier look towards them, he allowed one hit and issued one stroll whereas placing out seven throughout 5 scoreless innings in a 4-0 win on Sept. 19, 2025.
Right-hander Tatsuya Imai (1-0, 7.27 ERA) is slated for reinstatement from the injured checklist and is scheduled to start out for the Astros.
Imai landed on the 15-day IL on April 12 with proper arm fatigue. He recorded just one out in his earlier begin on April 10 towards the Mariners, permitting three runs on one hit and 4 walks in his workforce’s 9-6 loss.
Signed as a free agent from Japan in the course of the offseason, Imai recorded his lone win of the season towards the Athletics on April 4, permitting three hits and three walks with 9 strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings in an 11-0 victory.
Imai will make his second profession look towards Seattle and his fourth begin towards an AL West opponent.
With 4 of the 5 groups within the AL West beneath .500 getting into Monday, the Astros opened a seven-game homestand with a possibility to work again into competition regardless of beginning the collection towards the Mariners tied for final place within the division with the Los Angeles Angels.
In addition to the four-game set towards the Mariners, the Astros will host the Texas Rangers for 3 video games this weekend. Texas is 2 1/2 video games behind the first-place Athletics and three 1/2 video games away from the Astros, who, regardless of their early-season struggles, are removed from out of the race.
The Astros have made the playoffs in eight of the previous 9 seasons.
‘If we play effectively this week, we will attempt to transfer up within the standings,’ Astros supervisor Joe Espada mentioned. ‘This is a workforce that we all know very, very effectively. I believe our workforce is aware of the significance of this collection and the subsequent one.’
–Field Level Media