Josh Naylor's 2-homer game ends offensive slump as Mariners sweep Astros

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After a stunningly slow start, the Seattle Mariners look back to form. The Mariners swept a four-game series against the injury-riddled Houston Astros with a 6-2 win Monday behind two early home runs from first baseman Josh Naylor.

Naylor, like Seattle’s other stars, has struggled early this season, entering Monday batting .102 without an extra-base hit. But then he hit home runs in his first two at-bats Monday, helping breathe some life back into the Mariners’ offense.

Naylor’s first home run of the year came in the first inning, on the second pitch of his first at-bat of the game. He sent that one just past the wall in right field for a three-run blast.

His second dinger came in the third, when Naylor knocked the ball into deep center field for a two-run homer.

No one, by the way, was happier for Naylor than Julio Rodríguez, who scored on Naylor’s first dinger.

Naylor, Raleigh and Rodríguez — the core of the Mariners’ batting order — have all had slow starts to the season, but Naylor’s has been particularly tough. The first baseman had just six hits, all singles, in 59 at-bats prior to Monday.

Seattle came into this season with big expectations after last year’s historic playoff run, but the team hasn’t looked particularly dominant so far, falling to 4-9 before the Astros came to town. Much of that was due to an early slump from the stars. When the bat on Ichiro’s statue broke during the unveiling on Friday, it felt like a very on-the-nose metaphor.

Since then, though, things have turned around. Raleigh, after leading the league with 60 homers last year, didn’t hit his first home run of the year until last week. Rodríguez, who finished with 32 homers in 2025, finally hit his first of the year on Saturday in the Mariners’ walk-off 8-7 win over Houston.

Before this series, Raleigh and Rodríguez were both batting .143, and Rodríguez had yet to notch an extra-base hit. Raleigh added another homer and four RBI against the Astros, and Rodriguez raised his average to .212 in the four-game set.

With the Mariners’ stars struggling, the rest of the lineup has stepped up. Leadoff man (and recent trade acquisition) Brendan Donovan and utility outfielder Luke Raley lead the team in homers, with three apiece. Raley was also the cause of the only non-Naylor run on Monday, hitting an RBI single in the fifth. Randy Arozarena leads Seattle in hits (16) and runs (12), with 22-year-old second baseman Cole Young second with 14 hits, 11 runs and two homers.

Now that Rodríguez, Raleigh and Naylor’s bats are hot(ter), the Mariners will hope to continue getting that kind of production from the full lineup to keep the team’s streak going.

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