SEA saw things 'come together' in series with HOU
Jason Benetti, Geoff Blum and Ryan-Rowland Smith reveal their top takeaways from the Mariners' series win over the Houston Astros, where Seattle showed its "blueprint" for success.
Video Transcript
We came in thinking it could be weird the rest of the way here, and it probably is gonna be one way or the other.
Yeah.
Th- this thing has changed hands so many times.
And Ryan, the, the, the Mariners, let's start there, get a couple of homers.
They get great pitching from Bryan Wu tonight.
The bullpen holds up.
This is the formula.
Yeah.
And you mentioned the formula and some of the little things coming together at the same time.
And I mentioned this early in the game.
With the Seattle Mariners, for tw- 20, 2026, it's about having some sort of momentum and everything coming together at the same time.
They just simply haven't had that, whether it's been an injury here.
They The lineup the, the way you wanted to construct it coming out of spring training has never or always been intact, you know, the starting pitching.
But it all, you know, came together in this series for them to take two or three, especially after that tough loss on Friday.
So this has gotta be one you heard Cal Riley talk about having to go to Milwaukee.
You have to take some of the good vibes, some of the energy, which they haven't had, into Milwaukee and, and keep this going because they are still There's so much left, you know, in this, American League West especially.
Well, I feel like in the wild card too, there's so many- Yeah teams ahead of you that you have to count- You can't count on those five, six other teams faltering and allowing you to go over there.
So I mean, I feel like everything for all of these teams, the Rangers, the Astros, the Mariners, everything's on that West Coast or in that division, so they've gotta go out there and win those.
And, I'm just fortunate it wasn't a 12 to two game 'cause that seems like what the, Mariners do to the Astros.
They were able to stay in it.
But this game, again, exposed what the Astros need to go out and do.
They need to get somebody in the rotation to step up and be consistent, keep them in the games late, because they do have a tendency to go out there and beat up on some bullpens late.
They weren't able to do it today.
They did it in the first game of the series.
But at the same time, you gotta go through some of these tough stretches to kind of figure out what we need to do better.
And usually the Astros end up doing that.
But there's still two more games between these two ball clubs in September.
Yeah.
And those might be really big games.
It's Houston, it's Seattle, it's Texas, it's Cleveland, it's Baltimore- Right it's the Tigers, it's the Blue Jays, it's the Red Sox.
Amazing.
I- What carousel every week it's somebody new- Yeah playing great baseball or poor baseball- Yeah to let somebody else in.
Yeah.
It's like no one wants to run away with it.
And I, and sometimes too, maybe you look around and say, "Well, you know what?
When we come to the ballpark every day, it's like we're still in it even though we've struggled in the last week," or whatever it may be.
I will say this from a Mariners point of view, man, they got a tough month of August, but when they get to September, all of a sudden you've got the Angels a couple times, the Rockies, you know, playing in Colorado.
So there is a light at the end of the tunnel, if they can hover here and get some of that magic going into September.
But how many times have we said that this season?
I know.
Exactly right.
Because the Astros are doing the same thing you're talking about.
We have a day off tomorrow and then we head right back into the Angels, Athletics, and you're going, "All right, boys, start licking your chops and go."
Yeah.
You still have to play those games.
And to the credit of the Angels and Athletics, they continue to go out there and play good baseball.
I mean, we saw what the Angels and Athletics have done to the Texas Rangers, and you're kinda going, "You can't have a letup at any point."
They just went two and five against the Angels and Athletics on a road trip.
Explain that for me, would you, Jason?
I Don't make that my job.
The Here's how this went tonight.
Three-two, the Mariners with the win.
As you heard Ahmed Farid talk about Cal Raleigh, a huge home run.
And four solo shots on the night.
Bryan Wu was great.
Six innings, three hits, just two runs.
This Mariners rotation is one of the best in Major League Baseball.
Yeah.
And again, I cannot say this enough with Bryan Wu, how much he, how different he has looked on the road.
Goes to New York and it's that empty the tank out the gates.
He only went five innings.
They basically said, "Look, go three innings, 100 pitches.
We don't care, don't give in."
And tonight he looked like his dominant self.
This was huge for the Mariners rotation.
