The Seattle Mariners entered play on Sunday at 5.0 games back in the American League West and 1.5 games back in the American League wild card race.
The M’s are unlikely to catch the Houston Astros in the division, but they do play the Astros for three huge games beginning Monday night.
As the M’s get set to travel to Houston, there is a very serious development worth monitoring: Astros star Yordan Alvarez left Sunday’s game early with a knee injury.
Again, this is unlikely to matter in terms of the division but should Alvarez be forced to miss any time with injury, that only helps the M’s chances of earning critical wins over the next few days. He is among the most feared hitters in baseball, hitting .308 this year with 35 homers and 86 RBI. He’s also notoriously tough on the Mariners. He hit home runs in both game one and game two of the 2022 ALDS, a series which the Astros swept 3-0.
Lifetime, Alvarez is a .298 hitter.
As of this moment, the Mariners haven’t announced a starting pitcher for Monday’s game, but there’s a thought that Luis Castillo could be ready to pitch in this series. He’s been out since injuring himself on Sept. 8. He has a Grade-2 hamstring strain. If Castillo is able to come back (first eligible Tuesday), that could cause the Mariners to shuffle plans.
We know that the Astros will go with Hunter Brown in game one of the series. First pitch is 5:05 p.m. PT.
At the time of this posting, the Astros and Mariners are both still playing on Sunday.
