The Astros didn’t just win a wild one against the Mariners on Thursday night. They found a little more separation in the AL West, and they did it with a rally that had all the usual headline material - plus one at-bat that deserves its own spotlight.
Houston’s 10-7 comeback win in 10 innings pushed the club a season-high three games ahead of the Texas Rangers, and Christian Walker delivered the knockout blow with a walk-off three-run home run. That’s the moment everybody will remember, and rightly so. But before Walker launched the 405-foot winner, Daulton Varsho quietly did the job that kept the inning alive.
That matters because Varsho has been a rough fit since Houston brought him in at the trade deadline to address a long-running need: a left-handed-hitting outfielder. The Astros had known since the offseason that they needed help there, but the first half of the season made it look like Dana Brown might end up selling instead of buying.
Houston was buried in both the division and the wild-card race. Then the turnaround came fast, and suddenly the Astros are first in the AL West and creating some breathing room.
Varsho entered Thursday night still trying to find his footing with his new club. He was just 4-for-35 as an Astro before stepping in for his biggest swing yet in the bottom of the 10th.
With two outs and runners on the corners, he saw Mariners closer Andrés Muñoz and initially came up empty on two sliders while Seattle held a 7-6 lead. But Varsho stayed with it, adjusted to another slider and punched a game-tying single to left field.
“I swung at two back-foot sliders and got a little amped up, but I slowed myself down and got the job done,” Varsho said, per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com.
That’s the kind of at-bat good teams lean on in late summer. It wasn’t flashy, and it won’t get the same run as Walker’s blast, but it was exactly the kind of professional plate appearance that can flip a game.
Varsho didn’t try to do too much. He went the other way, found the open space between short and third, and tied it up so Walker could finish the job.
Right now, the Astros are stacking wins in August and September, and that’s starting to look like the difference in a division race they now control.
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