Despite their uneven start to this season, the Seattle Mariners have been able to rely on their stellar pitching staff, with the opener of their four-game series against the Houston Astros providing the latest example of that reliability.
The Mariners’ 3-1 road victory over Houston on Monday was punctuated by five pitchers combining for 13 strikeouts against three walks. Seattle entered the series leading the majors in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.48) and increased its totals to 358 strikeouts against 102 walks through 42 games.
The Mariners also extended their winning streak against the Astros to eight games — the longest in the history of the series between the American League West rivals — and will try to make it nine in a row on Tuesday night in Houston.
“There’s always a little elevated meaning to playing here,” Seattle manager Dan Wilson said. “There’s a lot of history that we’ve had here with these two teams.”
Right-hander Bryan Woo (2-2, 4.02 ERA) has the starting assignment for the Mariners on Tuesday.
After allowing 13 combined runs across nine innings in a pair of no-decisions, Woo threw six shutout innings Wednesday in a 3-1 win over the Atlanta Braves in his previous start, with one hit, two walks and a season-high nine strikeouts on his ledger. That marked his sixth start with one or fewer hits and five-plus innings since the beginning of last season, tied with Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the most in the majors during that span.
Woo is 2-2 with a 2.83 ERA in five career starts against the Astros. In his previous appearance against them, he allowed one hit and issued one walk while striking out seven across five scoreless innings in a 4-0 win on Sept. 19, 2025.
Right-hander Tatsuya Imai (1-0, 7.27 ERA) is slated for reinstatement from the injured list and is scheduled to start for the Astros.
Imai landed on the 15-day IL on April 12 with right arm fatigue. He recorded only one out in his previous start on April 10 against the Mariners, allowing three runs on one hit and four walks in his team’s 9-6 loss.
Signed as a free agent from Japan during the offseason, Imai recorded his lone win of the season against the Athletics on April 4, allowing three hits and three walks with nine strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings in an 11-0 victory.
Imai will make his second career appearance against Seattle and his fourth start against an AL West opponent.
With four of the five teams in the AL West below .500 entering Monday, the Astros opened a seven-game homestand with an opportunity to work back into contention despite starting the series against the Mariners tied for last place in the division with the Los Angeles Angels.
In addition to the four-game set against the Mariners, the Astros will host the Texas Rangers for three games this weekend. Texas is 2 1/2 games behind the first-place Athletics and 3 1/2 games clear of the Astros, who, despite their early-season struggles, are far from out of the race.
Houston has made the playoffs in eight of the past nine seasons.
“If we play well this week, we can try to move up in the standings,” manager Joe Espada said. “This is a team that we know very, very well. I think our team knows the importance of this series and the next one.”
–Field Level Media
