Mariners Sliding

The Seattle Mariners left Houston lamenting their missed opportunities.

Their playoff hopes took another hit, as Jake Marisnick had a three-run homer for the second straight game and Alex Presley drove in two runs to lead the Houston Astros to an 8-3 win over the Mariners on Sunday.

Houston took two of three from the Mariners, who dropped to 1 1/2 games back for the second AL wild card with the loss.

”The only thing you can say is we haven’t done our jobs,” Seattle second baseman Robinson Cano said. ”The last couple of games we have men in scoring position and we haven’t done our job. We just aren’t very consistent.”

Manager Lloyd McClendon looked on the bright side instead of wallowing in what might have been.

”I choose to be very positive,” he said. ”We lost a tough series, but we’re still in this thing, and I guarantee you there’s a lot of teams that wish they were in our position right now.”

Rookie Collin McHugh (11-9) allowed four hits and three runs in six innings to extend his career-best winning streak to seven. He’s the first Astros pitcher to win seven straight since Roy Oswalt reeled off nine in a row from Aug. 23, 2006, to April 17, 2007.

The Astros trailed 3-1 in the fifth inning before an RBI double by Jose Altuve. A two-run single by Presley, who finished with three hits, came with two outs in the inning to make it 4-3 and chase Hisashi Iwakuma (14-9).

Michael Saunders hit a two-run homer for the Mariners, who were outhit 14 to seven.