J.P. Crawford delivers walk-off winner in Mariners thrilling comeback over Astros

Adam Jude, The Seattle Times on Apr 12, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SEATTLE — Julio Rodríguez busted out of an early-season malaise with his first home run of the season Saturday night, a majestic blast to straightaway center field that completed the Seattle Mariners’ comeback from an early five-run deficit against the rival Houston Astros.

J.P. Crawford, as good as there is anywhere with the bases loaded, finished off the thrilling rally in the bottom of the ninth inning with a line-drive single to left field off Bryan Abreu, driving in Cole Young from third base to deliver an 8-7 victory, the second walkoff win of the season for the Mariners.

Crawford, the veteran shortstop, is hitting almost .400 in his career with the bases loaded, and he came through again against the Mariners’ biggest rival, prompting a hearty “J.P.! J.P!” chant from the 43,294 fans inside T-Mobile Park.

Cole Young, Brendan Donovan and Leo Rivas all worked walks against Abreu to load the bases for Crawford.

Yordan Alvarez and the Astros vaunted offense had rocked Mariners starter Luis Castillo to take a 7-2 lead in the fourth inning, a second straight shaky start from the Mariners veteran.

The Mariners bullpen threw 5.2 scoreless innings, with Casey Legumina, Jose A. Ferrer, Eduard Bazardo and Matt Brash shutting down an Astros offense that leads the American League in several offensive categories.

Andrés Muñoz, after throwing a season-high 25 pitches to earn the save in the Mariners’ 9-6 victory Friday night, managed to escape a bases-loaded jam in the top of the ninth inning by getting Alvarez to pop out to Randy Arozarena in shallow left field for the final out.

Alvarez, the longtime Mariners killer and MLB’s home run leader early in the season, popped out on a 2-0 slider from Muñoz that was below the zone. Muñoz had thrown eight consecutive balls before that slider to walk the bases loaded.

Rodríguez recorded his first extra-base hit in his first at-bat, a double down the left-field line off Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr.

In the fifth inning, Rodríguez launched a slider from Astros lefty Steven Okert 426 feet out to center field, scoring J.P. Crawford to tie the score at 7-7.

Crawford had helped spark the rally with a bases-loaded, two-run single off McCullers Jr., who had retired 12 in a row into the fifth inning.

Cal Raleigh, batting right handed, followed with a broken-bat sacrifice fly to left field to drive in Leo Rivas, cutting the Astros lead to 7-5.

Rodríguez struck five pitches later with his well-timed first homer.

In the first inning, Raleigh ambushed the first pitch he saw from McCullers Jr. for a two-run home run to right field, his second homer of the season and first at T-Mobile Park. J.P. Crawford had led off the bottom of the first with a six-pitch walk.

Alvarez hit a leadoff homer in the third inning, his second in as many nights in the series and his MLB-best sixth of the season. In 18 career at-bats up to that point, Alvarez had nine hits against Castillo, including three homers.

Cam Smith, after falling behind 0-2 in the count, won an impressive 13-pitch battle vs. Castillo later in the third inning, driving in two runs on a slider

Houston’s Taylor Trammell, the ex-Mariners outfielder recalled from Triple-A on Friday, had given the Astros the lead in the second inning when he laced a double off the top of the wall in left-center field to clear the bases with two outs.

Mariners leadoff hitter Donovan was out of the starting lineup Saturday for the second game in a row as he recovers from an illness.

Donovan was feeling well enough to go through a light workout on the field Saturday afternoon, catching flyballs and fielding groundballs with infield coach Perry Hill.

In a surprise move, Donovan came on to pinch hit with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, his first appearance since Wednesday in Texas. He worked a four-pitch walk against Abreu.