Seattle 4 at Houston 3 - Recap

HOUSTON -- Robinson Cano homered twice, including with two outs in the top of the 11th inning, to carry the Seattle Mariners to a 4-3 win over the Houston Astros on Monday night at Minute Maid Park.

Cano cranked his 35th home run off Astros right-hander Luke Gregerson (4-3) with Gregerson one strike away from striking out the side. Mariners right-hander Nick Vincent earned the save, his third, while Drew Storen (4-3) won in relief for Seattle.

The Mariners (83-73) moved 1 1/2 games ahead of the Astros (82-75) in the chase for an American League wild-card slot. Both Toronto (86-70), which occupies the top spot, and Detroit (83-73) lost on Monday while the Orioles (85-71) were idle.

George Springer, Marwin Gonzalez, Carlos Correa and Evan Gattis all delivered singles in the ninth, with Correa scoring Jose Altuve with the tying run after Altuve plated Springer with a fielder's choice. Houston rallied against Mariners closer Edwin Diaz, who allowed two runs on four hits to send the game into extras.

Seattle right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma twirled seven shutout innings at the Astros in his last appearance against them on July 16. Through five innings in his fourth start against them this season, he was breezing toward another shutout outing.

In the first and second innings, Iwakuma induced double plays to erase baserunners, closing the second inning with a double-play grounder off the bat to Tony Kemp after Carlos Correa opened the frame with a single and Evan Gattis followed with a walk. Iwakuma then set the Astros down in order in the third, fourth and fifth innings before finally displaying vulnerability in the bottom of the sixth.

With two outs, Marwin Gonzalez dumped a double in the right-field corner, scoring Jake Marisnick, who walked, and pulling the Astros to within a run. But when Jose Altuve followed with a sharp single to left field, Astros third base coach Gary Pettis made the dubious decision to send Gonzalez home. The throw from left fielder Nori Aoki beat Gonzalez by a mile. Catcher Mike Zunino applied the tag to end the frame.

The Mariners tacked on an insurance run in the ninth courtesy of a throwing error on Astros right-hander James Hoyt, whose airmailed throw over Tyler White at first allowed Ketel Marte to score from first on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Ben Gamel.

Iwakuma allowed one run on four hits and two walks with five strikeouts over six innings. Astros right-hander Collin McHugh also delivered a solid performance.

Making his fifth start this season against the Mariners, McHugh surpassed the total of earned runs he allowed to Seattle over his two previous appearances four batters into the first inning when Nelson Cruz brought home Seth Smith with a groundout.

McHugh worked consecutive scoreless starts against the Mariners in Seattle and had surrendered a total of one earned run over his last three starts and 20 innings against them. But Smith, who walked with one out, had advanced to third base when Cano followed a double to right and he scored easily on the Cruz grounder to third.

In the third, Cano doubled that lead to 2-0 with a solo home run into the Astros bullpen, his career-high 34th dinger this season. McHugh allowed two walks in the fifth inning, a leadoff single to Kyle Seager in the sixth, and a one-out double to Aoki in the seventh but weaved out of danger to limit the damage to those two runs.

NOTES: Astros OF Colby Rasmus will see a specialist on Tuesday in Philadelphia for a hip/groin issue that has sidelined him for more than a week. He made his last start on Sept. 16 at Seattle and pinch hit the following two games. Rasmus, who signed a one-year, $15.8 million contract during the offseason, is not expected to return this season. ... Mariners DH Nelson Cruz was in the starting lineup despite departing early on Sunday with a sore left wrist. Cruz swatted two home runs against the Twins before exiting and took limited batting practice on Monday to prevent overworking the wrist before the game. ... Astros RHP Lance McCullers will continue his rehab in Kissimmee, Fla., where he will face live hitters for the first time since landing on the 15-day disabled list Aug. 3 with right elbow discomfort. McCullers completed two bullpen sessions in recent days, his first since the injury. ... Astros 3B Alex Bregman ramped up baseball activities and participated in batting practice on Monday. Bregman (right hamstring) has been sidelined since Sept. 15.