SEATTLE (AP) — Josh Naylor singled home Randy Arozarena with the winning run in the 10th inning and the Seattle Mariners kept their slim playoff hopes alive by rallying past the Houston Astros 6-5 on Wednesday night.
Houston (78-80) remained tied atop the AL West with Texas, which has lost three straight games. The Astros hold the head-to-head tiebreaker if the teams finish with the same record.
The Mariners (74-84) are four games back with four to play.
Seattle was down 5-4 after automatic runner Yordan Alvarez scored on a triple to right field by Isaac Paredes in the top of the 10th.
With one out and the bases loaded in the bottom half, Julio Rodríguez worked a full-count walk from Astros closer Josh Hader, forcing in J.P. Crawford with the tying run. Naylor sent Hader’s next pitch to right-center, and Arozarena scored his third run of the night.
Alvarez went 2 for 4 without an RBI in his pursuit of the AL Triple Crown. That raised his league-leading batting average to .316. Tampa Bay’s Chandler Simpson, second at .309, did not play Wednesday against the New York Yankees.
Alvarez is part of a four-way tie for the home run lead at 41 with the Rays’ Junior Caminero, Baltimore’s Pete Alonso and the Yankees’ Ben Rice. The Houston slugger is second in RBIs with 102, eight behind Alonso.
Before his tying walk, Rodríguez had three hits for the Mariners.
Jose Altuve, Yainer Diaz and Nick Allen each had two hits for Houston. One of Diaz’s hits was his 14th homer, a two-run shot to cap a four-run third.
Cooper Criswell (4-2) pitched the 10th inning to earn the win for Seattle. Hader (4-2), who also pitched the ninth, took the loss.
Seattle scored three times in the third to pull to 4-3. The first two runs came on Dominic Canzone’s double as he extended his hitting streak to a career-best 12 games. Canzone’s single in the fifth scored Arozarena to tie it at 4.
Up next
The Mariners will send right-hander Bryan Woo (12-9, 3.92 ERA) to the mound Thursday in the opener of a season-ending four-game series against the Angels.
Right-hander Peter Lambert (8-10, 3.70) will pitch for the Astros in the first game of a four-game set at the Athletics.
