The Seattle Mariners lost to the Houston Astros by a 5-2 margin (box score) on Friday night, snapping their majors-best 14-game winning streak. That matched the Atlanta Braves‘ 14-game streak in June for the longest in Major League Baseball this season.
The Mariners’ winning streak tied for the seventh-longest mark since 1995, or the beginning of the wild card era. With one more victory, this edition of the Mariners would have tied the 2001 team for the longest in recent franchise history. The 2001 Mariners, of course, went on to win 116 games over the course of the regular season.
The Astros jumped ahead of the Mariners early, with second baseman Jose Altuve launching a solo home run to lead off the game. Yordan Alvarez added another solo home run in the fourth, making it 2-0, and Martín Maldonado then did the same in the fifth, giving the Astros a 3-0 lead. An Alvarez sacrifice fly later that inning would give the Astros a 4-0 advantage, and Jake Meyers would plate one more in the sixth, his single driving in Aledmys Diaz.
The Mariners would get on the board in the sixth with a Ty France solo home run. They’d score another in the eighth on a bases-loaded walk, cutting the deficit to 5-2.
The Mariners entered Friday night victors of 14 of their past 15 games in July. They entered the month with a 37-41 record on the season and even after Friday’s loss they’ll carry a 51-43 mark into play on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Astros came into play on Friday with a 61-32 and a 10-game lead in the American League West.
