Yes, that Mariners series win over the Houston Astros meant more

The Seattle Mariners just took three of four from the Houston Astros this week at T-Mobile Park. With these wins, the M’s are now 31-27 on the year and have a distance of 5.5 games between them and the Astros in the American League West (with the Rangers in between).

I asked myself the following question in the wake of the series win: Was this just a case of a Mariners team beating a bad Astros team (25-32), and that’s exactly what you’re doing to bad teams, or is it the case of M exercising certain demons?

I’ll go with the latter.

I understand that these The Houston Astros are not those Houston Astros, at least for now, but they’re still baseball players wearing Houston Astros uniforms. And the Mariners have struggled to beat every player in an Astros uniform with any consistency since the Astros entered the American League West in 2013.

Even with the success of 2023 and so far this year, the Mariners have gone THIRTY-FIVE games under .500 against the Astros since 2013. No matter who has played one side or the other, the Astros have always dominated, so yes, beating the guys in these jerseys absolutely counts. It matters to the fans, and it should matter to the players too.

Over the past seven years, the Astros have appeared in the ALCS seven times and won two World Series titles. The Mariners have only made the playoffs once – and the Astros eliminated them.

In this series, the Mariners didn’t allow Yordan Alvarez to homer, didn’t allow Ryan Pressly to stop them, didn’t allow Jose Altuve to run at them and won a game started by Justin Verlander – all things that have proven to be very difficult every time these teams come together.

Again, I understand that the Astros of today are not the Astros of old, but these small wins matter, and these big wins matter. It’s not just “expected” against the Astros, because it’s never “expected” against the Astros.

This series doesn’t erase previous failures, but it eases fans’ stress and heartbreak and gives hope for success in the future.

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