The Seattle Mariners finally stopped the bleeding Aug. 13, avoiding a sweep at Yankee Stadium with a 1-0 win. Logan Gilbert did most of the heavy lifting, tossing six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts. Jhonny Pereda also deserves a real hat-tip for the way he guided Gilbert and the bullpen through the shutout. Weston Wilson provided all the offense Seattle needed with a solo homer that held up as the game’s only run.The win snapped a six-game losing streak after the Mariners dropped the first two games of the series, 4-1 and 10-5. We also saw the last of Colt Emerson for at least a few weeks in a Mariners uniform. He was optioned to Triple-A with Brock Rodden taking his place on the major league roster.It was an important result, but definitely not proof that Seattle’s offense has turned a corner. The Mariners scored seven total runs in the series and managed only two outside their five-run performance Wednesday.The M’s will now continue their road trip with a three-game weekend set against their division rival Houston Astros at Daikin Park. The Mariners enter at 57-65, five games behind the 62-60 Astros in the AL West standings.If there’s one team the M’s should feel good about seeing, it’s the Astros. They’ve owned the matchup so far this season, going 7-1 after sweeping four games at home in April and taking three out of four in Houston in May. That was enough to lock up the head-to-head tiebreaker. Still, so much has changed since those first meetings, and neither team looks quite like the one the other saw earlier this season.Houston fell to 17-28 following an 8-3 loss to Seattle on May 14. Since then, the Astros have gone 45-32, climbed above .500 and moved into first place in an unusually forgiving division. Seattle, meanwhile, has continued moving in the opposite direction.Mariners Probable Starters vs. AstrosFriday, Aug. 14, 5:10 p.m. PT: RHP George Kirby (8-9, 3.68 ERA) vs. Astros RHP Peter Lambert (8-6, 3.09 ERA)Saturday, Aug. 15, 4:10 p.m. PT: RHP Emerson Hancock (6-7, 3.35 ERA) vs. Astros RHP Hayden Wesneski (2-0, 3.86 ERA)Sunday, Aug. 16, 4:20 p.m. PT: RHP Bryan Woo (8-8, 4.15 ERA) vs. Astros RHP Hunter Brown (3-2, 3.68 ERA)All six probable starters are right-handed, so the Mariners get a temporary break from their biggest weakness in lefties. The M’s have already proven they can beat Houston. What they haven’t recently proven is that their lineup can consistently give the pitching staff enough support to make those performances matter.They still have five games remaining against Houston, including a final two-game series at home in September. The season tiebreaker is already secured, but taking another series this weekend would allow the Mariners to cut into the standings against one of the teams directly ahead of them.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow