Both clubs were coming off an extra-inning slugfest just hours earlier, when Christian Walker's walk-off homer decided things for Houston — the kind of game that leaves a bullpen picture unsettled heading into the next one. That set the stage for a very different result the next time out.
Seattle put up 4 in the second and never really let go, tacking on insurance in the 8th and 9th to turn a tight one into a laugher. Houston's defense didn't help itself either, committing 2 errors that turned innings over that should've ended. The Mariners finished with 15 hits to the Astros' 8 — a total reversal from the kind of game that's had Seattle searching for answers all month.
That search starts and ends with Cal Raleigh, who's been blunt about how far he's fallen off last year's MVP-caliber pace, and this was a rare night where the lineup clicked without needing him to carry it. Houston, meanwhile, is trying to hold off Texas in a tightening AL West race, and dropping one at home to a sub-.500 club doesn't help that cause.
These two already know each other well from this series, and with the way the last two games have gone — a walk-off, then a laugher — there's no telling which version shows up next. For a Houston club trying to lock down the division and a Seattle club trying to salvage a lost summer, that unpredictability is exactly the problem.