Mariners' bats silent in 2-1, 12-inning loss to rival Astros

Adam Jude, The Seattle Times on Apr 9, 2025

Published in Baseball

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There are brutal, agonizing, gut-punch, shield-your-eyes losses.

And then there’s what happened to the Mariners on Tuesday night.

It’s April. It’s early April. A lot can and will happen over the next six months, and every baseball team at some point in a season will go through challenging stretches with ugly losses.

But if there’s a game that can neatly encapsulate the experience of Mariners baseball, we submit this April 8, 2025 monstrosity of madness.

With the tying run at third base in the bottom of the 12th inning, Astros reliever Steven Okert struck out Luke Raley and Ryan Bliss to end the game and give Houston a 2-1 victory at T-Mobile Park.

Best thing you can say about this game is … it’s over.

The Mariners (4-8) wasted a strong start from Luis Castillo, and they’ll now turn to Luis F. Castillo for his second major-league start Wednesday in hopes of avoiding their third straight series loss.

The Mariners struck out 19 times and finished 1 for 19 with runners in scoring position Tuesday, continuing an ugly trend in both categories early in the season.

Victor Caratini single through the left side of the infield to score the automatic runner, Brendan Rodgers, from third base off Jesse Hahn in the top of the 12th for the winning run.

Dylan Moore went from goat to potential hero when he made an incredible play at third base in the top of the 11th inning with the bases loaded.

Moore initially bobbled a 108-mph ground ball off the bat of the Astros’ Brendan Rodgers, but Moore was able to corral the ball in his right hand as he ran to third, then touched the base as he threw off-balance to Luke Raley at first base for an improbably 5-3 inning-ending double play.

But the Mariners couldn’t capitalize in the bottom of the 11th after Julio Rodriguez advanced to third on Cal Raleigh’s deep fly ball to left field.

Mitch Garver ended the inning with a 6-4-3 double play.

Luis Castillo pitched a gem for the Mariners, allowing no runs pitching into the sixth inning. He scattered five hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

Castillo escaped unscathed a bases-loaded jam in the fourth inning, but needed 34 pitches in the inning to do so.

The Astros’ Yainer Diaz scored their first run in the top of the seventh inning after a one-out error by Moore, the Mariners’ fill-in third baseman who one-hopped his throw across the diamond toward Donovan Solano, the fill-in first baseman who couldn’t handle the high bounce.

Diaz scored when rookie right fielder Cam Smith, the Astros’ prized return in the blockbuster trade with the Cubs for star slugger Kyle Tucker, tripled down the left-field line off Collin Snider for his first big-league RBI. That made it 1-0.

Framber Valdez foiled the Mariners over six scoreless innings. He struck out eight and with one walk, effectively mixing in his signature curveball and sinker to limit them to two hits over six sharp innings.