Solo home runs, in fact, can beat you.
So can Bryan Woo when he is on top of his game, which has been the case more often than not for opposing lineups this season.
This three-game series may or may not determine the AL West race. I personally think it is more of the former, but there are six games left after this weekend set between the Astros and Mariners. Anything can happen—a hot streak here or a cold streak there. But a strong showing this weekend helps the cause in any case. Hunter Brown certainly
did his part, for example, allowing only two earned runs in six innings. One of those home runs, a solo shot by Julio Rodríguez in the first, was on a sinker low and inside. A great piece of hitting, to be frank.
There is only so much you can do against a hitter like Rodríguez when he is on a tear for the past couple of months (.573 SLG in the second half). But Brown threw quite well for most of his six innings, generating 19 whiffs and striking out nine. Seattle had some traffic with five hits and two walks, but other than a solo home run by Rodríguez in the first and Eugenio Suárez in the fourth, you can’t complain too much about Brown’s start.
The lineup, however, didn’t have any answers for arguably the Mariners’ best pitchers. Bryan Woo carved up this lineup for five innings, striking out seven while allowing only one hit and one walk. But his start was cut short during his warm-up in the bottom of the sixth inning, leaving with what was later described as a tight pectoral muscle. But Woo leaving early didn’t matter as Seattle’s bullpen pitched four scoreless innings, allowing only two hits. In the entire game, not one Houston hitter even reached third base. Yes, there were some missed calls, but the bats were ice cold, again, when it mattered most. Such is the story of the 2025 season.
Ultimately, it didn’t matter how well Brown pitched, or the fact that Enyel De Los Santos and Craig Kimbrel also allowed solo home runs; if the bats can’t produce, you’re going to lose. In this case, a 4-0 defeat drops Houston one game back of Seattle in the AL West race. Two more games remain this weekend, though. In possibly his last regular-season start at home as an Astro, let’s hope Framber Valdez can put this team on his back one more time. They’ll need him to if they want to improve their chances of winning the AL West.
