J.P. Crawford hit a grand slam, and Cal Raleigh smashed his major league-leading 58th homer to help the Seattle Mariners inch closer to a postseason berth with 7-3 win on the road Sunday night against the Houston Astros.
Logan Gilbert (6-6) threw six innings of one-run ball for the Mariners (87-79), who swept the Astros (84-72) in a crucial series between American League West contenders. Seattle, seeking its first division crown since 2001, has won 14 of 15 to go from 3 1/2 games behind Houston to three ahead with six games remaining.
The Mariners scored their runs in the second inning, when 11 batters got to the plate. Small ball started the cavalcade as Josh Naylor and Jorge Polanco got infield singles off Jason Alexander (4-2). It ended with Crawford and Raleigh’s emphatic shots off the Houston starter.
Crawford went to right field seats for the sixth slam of his career and gave Seattle a 5-0 lead. Two batters later, Raleigh belted a two-run shot down the right field line that left his bat at 107.6 mph.
Alexander lasted just 1 1/3 innings. Seattle tagged him for seven hits and a walk. He got only one strikeout.
Zach Cole, a late addition to the Astros lineup after Jeremy Pena was pulled because of oblique soreness, went 2-for-3. Playing right field, Cole hit his third homer of the season in the third.
Gilbert, who entered Sunday with a 5.08 ERA on the road this season, gave up three hits, walked one and hit a batter. He also struck out four.
Houston’s Jose Altuve, who went 2-for-2 with a walk, singled Cole home with one out in the seventh off Caleb Ferguson. However, Carlos Vargas came in with runners on the corners and induced an inning-ending double play from Carlos Correa to end the threat.
Vargas surrendered a lead-off homer to Isaac Paredes, his 20th, to start the next inning
The Astros’ third straight loss also kept them from moving ahead of Cleveland for the final AL wild-card berth. Both teams have the same record, but the Guardians, who lost 6-2 at Minnesota earlier in the day, hold the tiebreaker, having won four of the six games between the two squads.
