Christian Walker blasted a three-run, walk-off homer as the Houston Astros answered a three-run rally by the Seattle Mariners with a five-run 10th inning en route to a wild 10-7 victory on Friday.
Mariners closer Andres Munoz (5-5) was handed a two-run lead after Victor Robles capped a three-hit game with an RBI triple in the top of the 10th and scored on Brock Rodden’s sacrifice fly.
Munoz surrendered RBI singles to Isaac Paredes and Daulton Varsho before Walker crushed his 23rd home run 405 feet to left field.
Three Seattle relievers combined to work 4 1/3 perfect innings before the Astros got to Munoz.
Robles plated automatic runner Brendan Donovan and snapped a 5-5 deadlock with his drive to the left-center-field gap off Astros reliever Enyel De Los Santos (2-3).
Yordan Alvarez cut the Mariners’ 2-0 lead in half with his American League-leading 36th homer with one out in the bottom of the first off Seattle starter George Kirby.
Houston jumped on top with a two-out rally in the second.
Six consecutive batters reached with two outs, starting with a Walker single. Cam Smith followed with a game-tying triple, Nelson Velazquez walked, and Jeremy Pena added an RBI single. After a balk, Alvarez was intentionally walked before Paredes produced a two-run infield single that gave Houston a 5-2 lead.
Josh Naylor keyed the Mariners’ rally with a leadoff double off Astros reliever Bennett Sousa in the sixth. Robles plated Naylor with a two-out single that cut the margin to 5-3.
In the eighth, Seattle pulled even against Bryan Abreu. Julio Rodriguez walked and eventually scored on a groundout by Donovan. Rodden later delivered a ground-rule double for his first career hit and RBI in his major league debut.
Astros starter Peter Lambert recovered nicely from a rough opening frame. The right-hander allowed three hits in the first, including doubles by Randy Arozarena and Rodriguez sandwiching an RBI single by Dominic Canzone. Naylor drove home Canzone with a sacrifice fly to right for a 2-0 lead.
Lambert completed five innings, allowing two runs on four hits and two walks with six strikeouts.
Kirby permitted five runs on eight hits in 4 2/3 innings. He fanned two and walked three.
–Field Level Media
