Saturday felt more like a vintage 2018 Astros win, with a strong pitching performance buoying Houston to a 3-1 win over the Mariners to make it eight in a row.
Without a doubt, the star of the evening was Justin Verlander, who turning in arguably the best pitching performance the team has seen yet in the young season. Remember early last year, when the Astros’ rotation littered the top of the strikeout leaderboard? Verlander decided to reach back to that moment, striking out eleven M’s over six innings while walking none, including eight of the first ten batters faced with a stretch of six in a row from the first through third.