Three Winners, Three Losers in Mariners Sweep of the Astros

This Astros team has always felt like it had a tenuous grasp on its playoff aspirations. Loaded with pitching depth and re-loaded on offense, entering 2025 felt like both a new start and a transition at the same time. Now, with just six games left in the season, the transition seems closer than ever.

On Sunday night, the first place Seattle Mariners completed a sweep of the Astros at Daikin Park to all but clinch the AL West and put the Astros (currently) out of the postseason. After a three-game sweep of the Rangers, the teams entered this series tied. So much for that.

As of writing this, the Astros are on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoffs, and these three losses weren’t even close, making the fade at the end of this crazy year seem even more apparent. We might normally do FOUR winners and losers, but we felt three, given the sweep, seemed appropriate.

WINNERS

Cal Raleigh

Not only does the “Big Dumper” have one of the best nicknames in sports history, he’s now tied with Ken Griffey, Jr. for the most homers in a season by a Mariner. Big D hit a pair of dingers in the series against Astros pitching. He has been remarkable all year and that didn’t end at Daikin.

Zach Cole

A few weeks ago, you would have been hard pressed to find an Astros fan who had a clue who this young outfielder is. But, since his joining the team, he has been an absolute offensive spark plug. Granted, a spark is about all this Astros team can produce offensively, but, hey, it’s something.

Mariners Fans Revenge

It feels like there is no fan base that hates the Astros more than Seattle. The Dodgers might come close, but the number of times the Astros have broken the M’s has got to be absolutely debilitating to that fan base. This year, not so much. They are flinging fish around that market in Seattle with a particular glee this weekend.

LOSERS

Astros Starting Pitching

In 12 innings pitched, the Astros starters Hunter Brown, Framber Valdez and Jason Alexander gave up 14 runs. Relievers gave up three. In fairness, 12 of those 14 runs game off Valdez and Alexander, not Brown, who still can’t seem to get any run support from this teammates. Valdez has continued to sputter his way to free agency and Alexander had his first awful start as an Astro. Too bad it was in this series.

Houston Run Scoring

Being outscored by 10 in a three-game series is bad, but when you consider that four of the Astros seven runs scored came on a grand slam by Jeremy Peña in game two, yikes. The home team put runs on the board in exactly four of the 27 innings they played in this series. It has been a rough year for the offense, but this was an absolute faceplant in the most important series of the year.

Fans with an Early Monday Morning

Instead of a day game, ESPN bumped the series finale to Sunday Night Baseball. For the fans in attendance, they were treated to a 7-run second by the Mariners and it was basically downhill from there. With Monday just hours away from the end of the game, the fact that fans had to wait it out until 9:30 p.m. instead of 4:30 p.m. is just brutal.