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On an evening when the roof was closed, Justin Verlander and the Houston Astros remained hot, winning their 12th game out of their last 15.
It was the night of the Astros Justin Verlander bobblehead giveaway, the future Hall of Famer once again didn’t disappoint. He only gave up one run in seven innings, the only run coming on a Dee Gordon RBI triple in the third.
The Mariners only managed four hits off Verlander in total. Striking out seven and only walking one, he notches another quality start under his belt and wins number 18 on the season. His ERA now sits at 2.52 and it looks like Verlander is polishing off another CY Young season.
The Offense
In what was another dominant outing by their ace, the offense couldn’t muster up an answer to the Mariners Yusei Kikuchi until the 6th inning. Kikuchi left a slider over the middle of the plate and Alex Bregman blasted his 34th home run of the season over the train tracks above the Crawford boxes in left. Bregman becomes only the third player in Houston Astros history to have a 100 walk, 100 run, and 100 RBI season.
Josh Reddick then broke the tie in the 7th with a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Kyle Tucker from third. That was all the runs that were needed to finish off another Astros win over the Mariners. The Astros improved to 15-1 against Seattle this season, and 93-50 overall
The Bullpen
The Astros bullpen remains one of its strongest assets, despite some recent worries about Roberto Osuna and the absence of Ryan Pressly. Josh James pitched a scoreless 8th inning, even though he gave up two hits.
Will Harris came in for the 9th inning and shut the Mariners down one-two-three to earn his second save of the season and lower his season era to 1.65. The Astros bullpen ERA as a whole now sits at 3.72, which is second in the majors behind only the Cleveland Indians at 3.51.
What’s On Tap
The Astros finish up the four-game set with the Mariners tomorrow as they look for the sweep. Gerrit Cole is on the mound to face Felix Hernandez in game number 144 on the season. Following this series, there will only be 18 games left in the regular season and only four are against teams over the .500 mark. This is important as the Astros continue to go neck and neck with the New York Yankees for the best record in the American League to gain home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.