The Seattle Mariners accomplished a bit of team history today - and vaulted themselves back in to the the AL pennant race - by beating the defending champion Houston Astros today for the fourth time in a row.

After scuffling for much of the first portion of August, Seattle went to Houston and completed an improbable four-game sweep of the defending World Series champion Houston Astros to pull withing four games of the AL West division lead and 1.5 game deficit for the second Wild Card birth with a 4-3 10 inning victory today.

Starting pitcher Erasmo Ramirez - taking the spot of demoted Felix Hernandez - went five strong innings against the best hitting team in the MLB. Seattle cushioned a tenuous 1-0 lead with a mammoth solo bomb off of the bat of Mike Zunino before the 'Stros rallied for three runs of their own to take a 3-2 lead going into the top of the 9th inning. Ryon Healy sent the contest to extra panels with a two-out solo blast and Seattle tacked on another run in the 10th following a single and a double by Dee Gordon and Mitch Haniger, respectively, before Edwin Diaz nailed down his fourth save in as many days. The last time a reliever accomplished that feat was when Joe Nathan of the Minnesota Twins accomplished it in 2004.

Seattle heads to Oakland for a very meaningful three game series against the Athletics beginning tomorrow night.

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