SEATTLE — The booing has not relented. It remains as vicious as ever, particularly when the veterans associated with the sign-stealing scandal come to the plate. The hatred toward them has yet to subside, and likely won’t for some time. Can a grudge be held forever? Well, baseball fans are certainly going to try when it comes to their dislike of the Houston Astros.
Perhaps what stokes the animosity toward the Astros more than anything is their continued success even after the curtain was pulled back on their 2017-18 run, revealing a coordinated effort to find an advantage that will never allow baseball fans to look at trash cans the same.
Houston is still good.
Even with the steady loss of quality players to injury or free agency, including All-Star shortstop Carlos Correa last offseason, the Astros offered up two big reasons — one old and one new — to the Seattle Mariners and the 38,504 fans enduring a chilly Saturday night at T-Mobile Park, why they are still the team to beat in the American League West with a 4-0 victory.
And until another team proves otherwise over the course of the marathon that is a baseball season, there is not reason to think otherwise.
Veteran right-hander Justin Verlander, 39 and coming off Tommy John surgery that forced him to miss all of last season, delivered a dominant performance reminiscent of his youthful seasons, tossing eight shutout innings while allowing just three hits, striking out eight batters not issuing a walk. With pinpoint accuracy early in counts, he needed just 87 pitches in those eight innings, throwing 64 strikes.
Meanwhile, rookie shortstop Jeremy Pena, a 6-foot, 200-pound package of muscle and speed drafted in the third round out of the baseball powerhouse that is the University of Maine in 2018, gave a glimpse into his vast potential that allowed the Astros to never invest heavily in bringing Correa back on a long-term contract extension. Pena went 3 for 3 with a triple and a sac fly, while scoring two runs.
The Mariners got a decent start from Chris Flexen, who still hasn’t looked right since the start of spring training in terms of fastball velocity and crispness of his pitches. To be fair, both of his starts this season have come in frigid temperatures not conducive to anything but winter sports and staying inside.
Flexen pitched six innings, allowing three runs on five hits with a walk and three strikeouts. With the Astros in swing mode and aggressive early in counts, he threw just 72 pitches in the outing with 47 strikes.
Houston grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Niko Goodrum led off with a double and later scored on Pena’s sac fly that traveled 391 feet in the marine layer, taking Julio Rodriguez all the way to the wall.
Pena led off the fifth inning with a single to center and watched as Martin Maldonado sent a rocket into left-center for a two-run homer and a 3-0 lead.
That was all that Verlander needed. The Mariners never got a runner in scoring position over the eight innings and all three hits were singles — one from Adam Frazier and two from Ty France.
