HOUSTON — They know how raucous and roaring this venue can be because they’ve lived through it, painstakingly through some of their most gut-punch losses over the past decade.
Which made the silence that the Mariners evoked throughout Friday at Daikin Park that much more surreal.
Indeed, Seattle emphatically opened its most monumental regular-season series in recent memory by crushing four solo homers and quieting a sellout crowd within a ballpark that for years had been their house of horrors, running away to a 4-0 win over the Astros.
And some of the loudest sounds of the night were the boos that bore down on Julio Rodríguez, Eugenio Suárez, Victor Robles and Josh Naylor as they rounded the bases after a quartet of solo shots.
“If you’re on the road and the road team is booing you, it’s because you’re doing something right,” Rodríguez said. “I just think it’s fun. This is a fun place to play. … They always bring it. And I feel like that’s why I like to play in this ballpark, because they always bring the energy.”
Moreover, coupled with Detroit’s loss to Atlanta earlier on Friday, the Mariners supplanted the Tigers (85-69) for the No. 2 seed in the AL standings, which would receive a bye to the Division Series — as Seattle owns the season tiebreaker over Detroit.
“The crowd here, always, every time they do something good, they’re loud,” Suárez said. “But today was our time to shut them down, and it feels great.”
For all of their homers on Friday night, none came from Cal Raleigh, who remained tied atop the franchise’s single-season leaderboard with Ken Griffey Jr. (1997 and ‘98) at 56.
Instead, it was the rest of Seattle’s sluggers who ambushed Astros All-Star Hunter Brown and company, headlined by Rodríguez’s solo blast in the first inning.
“You always want to strike first, especially on the road,” said Bryan Woo, who twirled five scoreless innings before exiting abruptly with pectoral tightness to begin the sixth. “Especially in good matchups, you want to do anything you can to get the momentum here dug out right away. [Rodríguez] has been unbelievable.”
Woo’s departure was a damper on an otherwise dominant night, and he’ll await the results of an MRI slated for Saturday. But even after he left, the Mariners kept rolling.
But it all started with Rodríguez, who connected on a 2-0 fastball way inside for his 31st of the season for a Statcast-projected 366-foot blast down the left-field line. If it looked like an impossible pitch to pull, it was. At 1.27 feet off the heart of the zone, it was easily the furthest off-plate pitch he’s homered on in his career (inside or outside) — and it was the second-furthest inside pitch to a righty batter that’s yielded a homer in 2025.
“Swinging,” said Rodríguez, who’s been mum to detail his mechanics at the plate. “I felt like I was ready to hit. And I was looking close, and I was able to get my barrel out there.”
Rodríguez also made a flashy catch at the left-center wall for the second out in the third, made all the more difficult by Daikin Park’s quirky dimensions. Then Suárez followed with a barehanded putout to nab speedster Jake Meyers and help Woo remain on cruise control. Those were among the many defensive gems from a complete win — but the homers were the headliners.
Suárez crushed his 47th of the year and 11th since rejoining the Mariners in the fourth, a 425-foot shot that reached the train tracks way above left field. Robles added on with his first of the year in the seventh, at 392 feet and off the Crawford Boxes. And Naylor demolished one 395 feet in the eighth, which secured him a coveted 20/20 season.
Over this 12-1 stretch, the Mariners lead MLB — by a wide margin — with 27 homers, an .893 OPS and 89 runs (6.8 per game).
“That’s what’s really cool about this team,” Rodríguez said, “because anybody can do damage. Anybody can get it done in any situation, so you don’t feel like the pressure is on you to get it done.”
