Crawford walks it off as Mariners earn series win over Astros

SEATTLE -- For as lifeless as the Mariners' lineup can look at times, J.P. Crawford summed up the state of Seattle's offense after it eked out another improbable, come-from-behind, edge-of-your-seat victory on Wednesday night.

"Get the game over with," Crawford said. "Get the job done. And let's go home. Honestly, get a good pitch, don't miss it. And thankfully, I didn't miss it."

Crawford lifted the Mariners to a 2-1 walk-off over the Astros at T-Mobile Park by ripping a 304-foot, bases-loaded sacrifice fly to deep right that easily scored speedster Jonatan Clase, the automatic and pinch-runner.

Clase had advanced to third when Dominic Canzone purposefully rolled over a pull-side groundout. Then Cal Raleigh and Luke Raley each walked to flip the lineup over to Seattle's shortstop and unofficial team captain, who is no stranger to these moments.

"If you don't look forward to being the hero of the night, you're in the wrong sport," Crawford said. "Once you get into that spot where you know you can win the game, there was nothing else that was going through my mind."

Five of Seattle's past seven victories dating back to May 18 have been manufactured via a comeback in the eighth inning or later, and overall, the club has now won four in a row to tie a season-high. Seattle will now go for a four-game sweep on Thursday and have won each of their past six series at home. And making matters sweeter this week has been the opponent, whom the Mariners are now 14-5 against since the start of last year.

"We've played much better against them since that forgettable day when we played 18 innings," Mariners manager Scott Servais said, referencing the season-ending loss in the 2022 postseason.

Amid all the chaos on this wild run of late, Wednesday's wasn't necessarily the most unlikely, but it was hard to call it the most rewarding, either.

The Mariners were able to overcome a season-high-tying 15 strikeouts and remain in the game thanks to six innings of one-run ball from George Kirby, who extended the Mariners' MLB lead with 34 quality starts, and another gritty effort from their bullpen, which has now thrown 12 straight scoreless innings dating back to Sunday's win vs. the Nats.

Newly acquired reliever Mike Baumann was credited with the victory after pitching a perfect 10th, having just joined the team last week in New York. His efforts also helped the Mariners overcome a spoiled walk-off opportunity in the ninth, when Julio Rodríguez was on third base as the winning run with one out, then saw pinch-hitter Ryan Bliss and Mitch Haniger punch out against five-time All-Star Josh Hader.

Those strikeouts brought Seattle's season total to an MLB-high 582, 29 more than second-worst Oakland. Overall, they're K'ing at a 28.2% clip, up their 25.9% rate last year, which was second-worst, and which prompted the front office to reconstruct the offense by subtracting their most strikeout-prone hitters with those that they believed would be more contact-oriented.

The difference between 2023 and '24 -- with the big caveat of "so far" -- is that the American League West hasn't been nearly as loaded, as the first-place Mariners (31-26) are the only team above .500.

"We know we're not there yet," Crawford said. "Everyone's going through ups and downs right now. But at the end of the day, once we step in those lines, it's win the game."

Seattle also ran into familiar foe Justin Verlander, who cruised through seven dominant innings of one-run ball -- his lone blemish being a 411-foot homer that Dominic Canzone ambushed on a first-pitch fastball in the fifth. Other than that, the Mariners mustered just two hits and one walk off the ageless ace. It was their third win in 18 games against Verlander since he joined the Astros at the 2017 Trade Deadline.

But they also got the last laugh -- only after Houston dipped into its leaky bullpen.

"You know these are going to be close games," Verlander said. "If you think you're going to come in here and bang out five, six, seven runs a game, I don't think that's realistic. You might get one guy, but this series has gone relatively the way people would expect. … In these tight ballgames, the margin for error is so small."

The Mariners will press forth on the coattails of their pitching staff and hope that their lineup can continue to pull out one big punch -- even if it takes extra innings to land the one-and-only knockout.