Hit The First Pitch

Taking advantage of your first pitch is exactly what the rookie Right Fielder George Spinger did in helping Houston thump Seattle.

He managed to hammer a second one later in the game giving the Astros a 9-4 in a game that Seattle should have won..

Springer managed to injure his right hip flexor on a simple ninth-inning pickoff play earlier in the week in Anaheim.

He missed the first two games of the series in which Seattle won both games.

With Maurer on the mound following a walk by Jose Altuve, Springer hammered a 90-mph fastball into the right-field seats.

He also connected on a 1-1 cutter from Maurer for another two-run homer in the Astros’ five-run sixth. He added an RBI in the sixth for a career-high five, in his 33rd big league game.

Oberholtzer was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City before the game gave up two runs in the first, and then found his form managing to retire 10 straight.

He finished with three runs allowed — two earned — with one walk and a career-high eight strikeouts.

In his only other start against Seattle on Sept. 1 last season, Oberholtzer threw a complete-game shutout, allowing four hits, walking one and striking out five. He is 2-0 with a 1.20 ERA in 15 innings against Seattle.

Maurer went 4 1-3 innings for the Mariners, allowing six runs on six hits. He walked one and struck out two.

Following Springer’s first homer, Maurer managed to retired the next 11 straight, nine on fly-balls, but the fifth was owned by the Astros.

Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon said Maurer has had “a few times where he is on a run and one thing or another goes wrong and he doesn’t seem to get it back together.”

The Astros scored two more in the sixth, one on a wild pitch by Wilhelmsen and the other on Springer’s RBI groundout. Wilhelmsen had entered with a 13 2-3-inning consecutive scoreless streak.

The Mariners added a run in the sixth on a’ bases-loaded groundout by Victoria’s Saunders.