Furious boos rained down on José Altuve and Alex Bregman each time they came to the plate with intense vitriol. And each of their achievements was celebrated with joy.
As Andrés Muñoz fired triple-digit fastballs and nasty sliders at overwhelmed Astros hitters in the ninth inning, chants of “Go Mariners! Let’s go sailors! T-Mobile park full.
There have been bigger crowds this season, but there haven’t been any more fueled by disgust and other things like the 23,814 in attendance Monday night.
The Astros were back in town. The endless hatred was palpable. And Muñoz closed out the Mariners’ 3-2 victory with a Jon Singleton strikeout?
Well, that was met with a joyous standing ovation.
“I’m not surprised,” manager Scott Servais said of the energy. “There’s usually good energy when we play the Astros in this stadium. We have a lot of history with that team. He just has a little more edge. They have owned the division, they and the Rangers have been on top. Ultimately, to get where we want, we’re going to have to beat these teams and beat them over and over again.”
Competing with Houston, much less beating the perennial division winners, was a problem in years past. But the Mariners have slowly shown that they are on the same level, if not better. They went 9-4 against Houston last season and are 3-1 this season.
“Everyone knows the story behind it,” Mariners shortstop JP Crawford said of the rivalry and simmering animosity. “And that’s true for us, at least for me. I take every game against these guys seriously. It’s always a fun series. But there is always that little advantage just because of the previous years and the things that happened.”
This most recent victory? Well, it might seem a little sweeter and have a little more meaning for a game in May because the Astros are chasing the Mariners in the standings. Houston came to Seattle having won 12 of its last 17 games.
After ending a forgettable road trip with a decisive victory over the Nationals, the Mariners followed up with another victory to start the series at home. They have six games left in this stretch of 17 games in 17 days before their next day off.
“This is our 11th game in a row today,” Servais said. “We’re in a tough patch at the moment, but I spoke to them today and told them it’s like a sprint. Just put your head down and keep running. “That’s what we have to do night in and night out.”
The Mariners jumped on Astros starter Framber Valdez in the first inning. Crawford grounded out past José Abreu at first base for a double. After Dylan Moore jumped to second, Julio Rodríguez singled to right past Altuve to put runners on the corners. Mitch Garver walked to load the bases for Cal Raleigh.
When Raleigh hit a Valdez fastball into the right-center field gap, it looked like he would have at least a two-run double if he didn’t clear the bases. Instead, Jake Meyers made a brilliant running/diving catch at the warning track. Raleigh had to settle for a sacrifice fly and a 1-0 lead.
But his teammates kept the pressure on Valdez. Ty France followed with a grounder to the left side to score Rodriguez from third base and make it 2-0. Mitch Haniger made it 3-0 with a simple single up the middle to score Garver from second.
By the time Valdez got rookie Ryan Bliss to ground out to second base in his first MLB at-bat, he had thrown 25 pitches. That number would increase to 43 after he needed 18 pitches to record a scoreless second.
“We were on Framber from the beginning and that’s what you have to do against him,” Servais said. “He calmed down and got more into the game than we would like to see.”
The All-Star southpaw was able to find some rhythm, command and efficiency. He wouldn’t allow another run for the rest of his outing. He retired 11 in a row at one point and worked six complete innings on 96 pitches. He walked three and struck out four.
Seattle had a lot of traffic in the game. The Mariners had six hits, walked five and struck out only five times.
“We hit some hard balls with runners in scoring position,” Servais said, mentioning three hard hits for Raleigh that were eliminated. “We could have scored six or seven runs.”
But three was too many for starter Bryce Miller.
Given the early run support, Miller coasted through the first four innings, allowing just one baserunner on a one-out walk to Kyle Tucker in the first inning.
His streak of 12 straight retired batters came to an end with Meyers’ single with one out in the fifth inning. Jon Singleton and Abreu each followed with singles to bring Meyers home for the Astros’ first run. Victor Caratini scored Singleton from third on a deep sacrifice fly to make it 3-2.
It looked like the inning would get out of control when Altuve doubled to left field. But Abreu could only reach third on the play even with two outs. Miller was able to retire the dangerous Tucker with a groundout to second to end the inning.
Miller returned and worked a scoreless inning despite a throwing error by Bliss and an awkward infield single by Meyers that should have been an out.
“I made a couple of mistakes and fell a little behind in the fifth,” Miller said. “But I was able to get out of there with two runs and stay ahead. That’s something I really couldn’t do last year. He would turn a one- or two-run inning into three or four runs. And it’s hard to come back from them. “It’s limiting the damage on those damage innings and staying in the game.”
His final line: six innings pitched, two runs allowed, five hits with two walks and six strikeouts. It was his sixth quality start of the season and the Mariners’ 32nd quality start this season, leading them to the most in MLB, just ahead of the Phillies with 31.
Seattle’s bullpen was impeccable. Trent Thornton, Gabe Speier and Muñoz each worked scoreless innings, allowing just one baserunner.
SCOREBOARD
Ryan Divish: rdivish@seattletimes.com; Ryan Divish covers the Mariners in Seattle and on the road. Look for his ‘Extra Innings’ podcast and mailbags throughout the season.
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