Robles Sinks Double Play Dagger in Game Two, Mariners Hold 6-4 Win
HOUSTON, Texas — With one catch in Houston, Víctor Robles etched his name in the wall of Mariners who will never be forgotten.
Daikin Park is nothing if not the graveyard of pretenders. Memories of late-inning Astros comebacks, specters of the Evil Empire’s umbral victories: these linger in the minds of every team that visits Space City in the late months of the year. From game five of the 2017 World Series, to game seven of the 2019 ALCS, to game one of the 2022 ALDS, the Astros have made magic—of both the light and dark variety—when it matters most.
Teams that lose here prove themselves unworthy of World Series trophies; teams that win here go on to hoist them.
With Seattle clinging to a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the ninth, the Astros got men on first and second with one out. Carlos Correa, who has looked in something like vintage form since returning to Houston at the trade deadline, struck a soft liner into no-man’s land in right center. Both runners took off upon seeing the ball dive towards the ground. The game was about to be a one-run affair, and the winning run was on his way to first.
Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, who had hit his 57th home run of the season earlier in the game, saw hope in the form of Robles’ reflective pink sleeves.
“I was watching Julio the whole time and I kind of saw him hold up a little bit,” Raleigh recalled. “I was like, ‘damn, it’s going to get down,’ and out of nowhere, just a flash of pink. Just Vic.”
Robles laid out completely as he dove out for the ball, catching it a foot off the ground. Half of Daikin Park was still cheering as he got up and tossed the ball to second. Jake Meyers, the lead runner, had already crossed the plate; he had no chance whatsoever of getting back to the base in time to prevent the game-ending double play.
"He's going to live in my head for the rest of my life, probably,” Julio Rodriguez noted. “That picture of him just flying and catching that ball."
Seattle’s 6-4 win brought them two games ahead of Houston for the AL West lead and clinched the tiebreaker against the Astros, effectively turning it into a three-game advantage.
MUST SEE: The ending of this Mariners vs. Astros game is WILD 👀 pic.twitter.com/PfOxxfIhUp— MLB (@MLB) September 21, 2025
Mariners Hold Back Terrifying Momentum
Robles may have done the final honors, but for the last half of Saturday’s ballgame, there was an unshakable sense that Astros magic was happening once again—and it took a Herculean effort to slay the Astros’ many-headed would-be comeback.
Houston manager Joe Espada, with his team down by a whole heap of runs, got his money’s worth from an ejection and fired up his once-lifeless team. Right fielder Cam Smith made a run-saving running catch in the top of the sixth, and although Houston’s deficit expanded to six runs, the tide appeared to turn in the seventh.
Carlos Vargas, who had given up his fair share of blowup starts earlier in the year but had only given up one run in his past nine appearances, reverted to an ugly form on Saturday. Although he got the first out without much fanfare, Astros catcher Yainer Diaz got on first with a slow dribbler to third, and the piece of luck started a rally.
Even after loading the bases with two outs, Vargas stayed in the game to face Jeremy Peña. Luckily for Vargas, he got a fly ball to left that, according to StatCast, carried a .050 expected batting average. Unluckily for Vargas, he was playing in Daikin Park; the cozy Crawford Boxes gobbled up a grand slam.
It didn’t get any easier in the eighth. Eduard Bazardo, showing clear exhaustion after having worked two innings the previous day, gave up a single and a double with one out, and Houston had the tying run in scoring position. Bazardo was able to dip into the last drop of gas in the tank and blow down Yainer Diaz, but with the left-hander Jesús Sánchez coming up to the dish, Dan Wilson went to southpaw Gabe Speier.
Houston countered with the right-handed Christian Walker, who pinch-hit for Sánchez. Speier didn’t worry about pitch selection against his lone batter—he fired three fastballs right by him for an inning-ending strikeout.
George Kirby Spins Excellent Start
The last three innings may have been a nailbiting affair, but for the first six frames, the game was marked by an incredible outing from a pitcher who thrives against the Astros.
Two starts in September showcased two vastly different versions of George Kirby. His Sept. 3 outing was the blowup of all blowups, a two-inning, seven-run disaster that featured a whole lot of stuff out over the middle of the plate. Two outings later, Kirby tore the Angels to shreds, striking out 14 and walking none while giving up just two runs over 6 ⅓ innings of work.
On Saturday, the Astros got much more of a taste of the latter Kirby, who fanned seven and walked none over six innings of shutout ball.
Early in the game on Saturday, however, a persistent issue presented itself for the Mariners hurler. He seemed to be releasing the ball slightly later than he usually would, overcooking a lot of first pitches outside for early balls. Sometimes, he would stick with the batter and recover, but other times, Kirby gave in and pumped a fastball over a whole lot of the plate.
Kirby faced early baserunners in both the first and second innings, with two men reaching base with singles in the first and Yainer Diaz opening the bottom of the second with a single. But both times, he got himself out of it, putting together some groundouts in the first before beautifully striking out Jesús Sánchez for the first out of the second. However, the final two outs of the second came on a massive stroke of luck for Kirby, as he left a 3-1 two-seamer out over the plate for Jake Meyers. Houston’s center fielder should have mashed the ball all the way to Corpus Christi, but he instead grounded into an inning-ending double play.
The Astros kept making contact in the third and fourth, but the balls in play were either softly hit or directly to a Mariners fielder. Seattle’s luck intensified as Kirby got the third out of the fourth on a gifted strike three from home plate umpire Shane Livensparger, and Houston was still scoreless going into the fifth. Kirby only seemed to improve in his penultimate frame, catching two Astros looking, one of which led to Espada’s ejection.
The sixth inning was his greatest. Every pitcher gets into jams, but what matters is whether or not they can work back out of it. When the first two men reached—just two entries in a whole slew of momentum going the Astros’ way—it seemed like everything could be on the verge of falling apart.
Kirby’s showing against Carlos Correa was nearly perfect. He started him off with a slider and then pumped sinkers on the outer edge, the third of which got him to haplessly whiff. Isaac Paredes fouled off one painted pitch after another, and on the ninth pitch of the at-bat, Kirby challenged him with 97.3 miles per hour right down the middle and got the strikeout.
A ground ball to Polanco ended the sixth inning with the Astros still scoreless and finished off an incredible start for Kirby, who gathered his 10th win of the season.
Mariners’ Mad Dashes on Basepaths Net Early Runs
Usually, left-handed pitchers are more difficult to steal second against than righties, as the fact that they face the runner at first affords them some more inscrutability between their pickoff moves and deliveries to the plate. But Framber Valdez, the Astros’ starter on Saturday, has a relatively slow delivery that affords runners much more time to take off.
Seattle’s strong base-stealers took good advantage of this fact early on in the game. Julio Rodríguez turned a two-out free pass into a double in the first inning and was able to trivially score on Eugenio Suárez’ double for Seattle’s first run, but the extra base with the biggest impact was in the second.
Who else with such a swipe than Josh Naylor? The man Seattle has come to call “Big Grumper” is not particularly fast, with just a second percentile sprint speed, meaning that 98 percent of big league ballplayers are faster than him. But baseball, as Yogi Berra once memorably noted, is 90 percent mental. Naylor has an uncanny knack for choosing the exact right pitch and the exact right pitcher to steal a base on, and his 28th of the year was no exception—Naylor took off on a breaking ball down and in from Valdez. Houston catcher Yainer Diaz had little chance to get the ball to second in time, and his light hesitation certainly didn’t help Houston’s case.
Mitch Garver and Víctor Robles each hit deep fly balls in their plate appearances to each move Naylor up a station, and Seattle had their second run.
By the time there were two outs in the fourth, it had turned over to Robles again, and he shot a grounder up the middle and pretty quickly took off to second. It was much closer—and on seeing the replay, it does appear Robles’ front foot goes off the bag while his back foot is yet to reach and the glove is already on him—but Houston manager Joe Espada opted to save his challenge for another time. The move paid off for Houston, as J.P. Crawford struck out to end the half inning.
Big Dumper Mashes #57
There’s someone every year who starts on an absolute tear. Maybe they hit double-digit homers by the end of April, maybe they’re batting .400 through May. If they can keep it up for the whole year, they’re on pace to do something amazing, something historic.
Almost invariably, they never do. The pace slows by June, and their season becomes just one of many strong (but not exceptional) campaigns in the annals of baseball history.
Cal Raleigh kept it up. Like many of those with a strong start, The Mariners backstop hit 10 home runs by the end of April. Fewer have followed that up with a dozen shots in May, but that’s just what Raleigh did. June was his best month with 11 big flies. His pace slowed slightly over the next couple months, as he hit nine in July and eight in August, but he still concluded the penultimate month of the season with 50 homers.
It was already a historic season for Raleigh by the time the calendar turned over to autumn’s first month, as his half-century was already the most ever by a catcher, but he still had records to chase. Up next was Mickey Mantle’s 54 home runs in 1961, then-most by a switch hitter. Raleigh blew past that mark and tied the 56-burger of Ken Griffey Jr. on the same day.
In the top of the third inning on Saturday, Raleigh passed Griffey. He got an 0-2 sinker out over the plate and drilled it out to one of the deepest parts of Daikin Park for Seattle’s third run of the game.
Ever focused on the task at hand, Raleigh downplayed the importance of yet another jewel in his already-studded crown.
“I thought about it rounding the bases, but that was about it,” Raleigh said. “And then I got back to the game.”
Mariners Add Key Insurance
One thing the Mariners have struggled with at many points of the season is tacking on insurance runs. On Saturday, however, they got just enough done in the middle innings to withstand Houston’s late onslaught.
Two runs came in the fifth as Josh Naylor chased Framber Valdez with a two-out bases-loaded walk and Dominic Canzone got a pinch-hit single to move everyone up a station. Astros reliever Jayden Murray, however, kept the game from getting out of hand, fanning Víctor Robles for the third out.
Seattle tacked on a final sixth run in the seventh inning. Eugenio Suárez started it off with his second double of the game and Jorge Polanco dropped one into center field ahead of Meyers. Houston’s center fielder, however, tried to make an improbable dive, and the ball bounced over him and started rolling towards the wall. It was only a heads-up sprint from Cam Smith that prevented Polanco from getting a triple or an inside-the-park home run.
That double was the last hit Seattle had all game, but six runs—by the skin of their teeth—ended up being enough.
On Deck
Following their massive win, the Mariners gear up for a Sunday night matinee against the Astros where they have a distinct advantage in the starters, with Logan Gilbert (5-6, 3.53 ERA) taking on Jason Alexander (4-1, 4.04 ERA). And with the team riding high from the biggest win of the season, they may very well find the finale easier than expected. It’s still the Astros, however, and they more than anyone can be counted on to get back into any fight they aren’t completely out of.
Saturday’s other results had distinct impacts on playoff seeding for October. The Detroit Tigers, who started off the season as the best team in the AL, lost their fifth straight game and continued a rut that is at risk of becoming an all-time collapse. The Mariners are now a game ahead of them in the standings and hold the second seed in the AL, a position that would grant them a first-round bye in the playoffs.
