Astros Explode In 7th, Maul Mariners
Cole Dominates For Second Win

Cole: Another sharp outing
(c) Associated Press
Gerrit Cole found himself in yet another close ballgame Wednesday night. The pitcher, acquired in an offseason trade from Pittsburgh, had heard about the Astros' prolific offense the team had in 2017 and may have wondered where it went. Cole did his part, again, allowing just one unearned run over seven frames while fanning five. Then the offense finally clicked for six runs in the seventh to hand Cole a 7-1 triumph in Seattle to pull within 1-1/2 games of Anaheim for the West Division lead.

Brian McCann, the batting star of Tuesday's contest, continued his hot ways in the second, slicing a double into the left field corner off Mike Leake to drive in Marwin Gonzalez for a 1-0 lead.

Seattle tried to answer in their half but Josh Reddick threw out Ben Gamel at the plate to keep the Mariners scoreless. The M's tied it in the third when Robinson Cano beat a drawn-in infield to plate Dee Gordon with a base hit.

The contest remained a tie until the fateful seventh when Reddick opened with a walk from Leake then Yuli Gurriel smashed a line double down the left field line. Gonzalez cracked a clean single to center to plate both runners. McCann smoked a double to right which resulted in a pitching change.

On Nick Vincent's third pitch to Evan Gattis, the DH blooped a fly into shallow right. After some confusion, right fielder Mitch Haniger made a stab for the ball and watched it clank off his glove. Gonzalez scored on the error.

One out later, George Springer drilled a shot off the fence in right-center to chase home a pair. Jose Altuve beat out an infield hit then Carlos Correa poked a base hit to left that brought in Springer for the final run. The six-run outburst was the most the team had done in one inning all season.

Joe Smith and Colin McHugh mopped up with a scoreless inning each to finish the job. The Astros had five two-hit performances in compiling their 12 hits.

Houston tries to close out a series win Thursday afternoon in a 2:40 pm Central time matinee. Charlie Morton (2-0) hopes to continue his April success for the 12-7 Astros when he faces lefty Marco Gonzalez (1-1) who enters with an 8.25 ERA.

- Bob Hulsey