HOUSTON — On the most chaotic day of Daulton Varsho’s baseball career, he found comfort in a familiar face. Varsho did not know many of his new Houston Astros teammates and had already become emotional in bidding farewell to the tight-knit group of Toronto Blue Jays he left behind on Aug. 3.
The two teams were playing one another in five hours, forcing Varsho to walk across the bowels of Daikin Park and into his new clubhouse. Awaiting him was a locker adjacent to one person who could lend some support.
“I think he was a little wide-eyed the first couple days,” Christian Walker said. “ … (There are) a lot of things, I think, that people don’t realize what’s going on behind the scenes with his family being in Canada, vehicles there, all of a sudden you have a baby in Houston. It’s just a lot.”
Walker and Varsho were teammates for three seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Upon their reunion earlier this month, Walker sought to make a seismic transition somewhat easier. He invited Varsho to stay at his Houston home while Varsho figured out his family’s next move. Both Walker and Varsho are fathers of daughters around the same age, so watching them play together has been an added bonus.
“It’s a lot,” Varsho said after his 10th game as an Astro. “Obviously moving your family here and packing up all your stuff and being able to kind of get it here. The guys have been great, welcoming. They all know that eventually it’s going to turn for me.”
When it did, Walker followed suit. Varsho tied a game the Astros could ill afford to lose. Two pitches later, Walker won it with a 405-foot walk-off home run for a 10-7 victory that is among the Astros’ most memorable of the season. It may have also removed whatever hope remained within the Seattle Mariners clubhouse.
The Mariners rallied from a 5-2 deficit, took a two-run lead into the 10th inning and twice came within one strike of winning the game. Instead, they fell six games back of Houston in the American League West and 3 1/2 out of the league’s final playoff spot.
Houston hosts this Mariners team mired in a freefall two more times during this homestand. Six more follow against the Los Angeles Angels and A’s, two teams that awoke Friday with the American League’s worst records. Opportunity looms to create a massive cushion atop the division, and Friday felt like a first step in seizing it.
“We have a lot of divisional stuff coming up,” Walker said. “You want them all, but it’s going to be a grind (for) the next three series. Start off on the right foot, get the first one and see what tomorrow brings.”
Walker and Varsho hit sixth and seventh in Houston’s batting order on Friday night, part of an imbalanced lineup that must receive production from players other than those at the top.
Providing that productions falls largely on them. Walker is making $20 million, but has managed a .692 OPS across the past two and a half months. The Astros acquired Varsho to become a middle of the order threat, only to watch him start his Houston career 4-for-35. Some poor batted ball luck played a part, but there aren’t enough games left for such excuses to matter.
Varsho’s 36th at-bat arrived with a game in the balance. Runners stood on the corners with two outs and the Astros trailing by one run. Mariners closer Andrés Muñoz befuddled Varsho with two backfoot sliders he swung straight through.
“I got too amped,” Varsho said. “Tried to do too much. Slowed myself down, pushed my sights a little bit further over.”
Muñoz spun another slider that nicked just enough of the strike zone. Varsho rolled it against a pull shift and past the shortstop’s outstretched glove, tying the game.
“I’m sure he wanted to come through for his teammates and he did,” manager Joe Espada said. “He’s a good hitter. It’s going to happen. It’s just taking some time, but it’s going to happen. We need him. He’s been a good hitter for a very long time. Hopefully that’s the one that is going to open up the doors and we get more.”
Muñoz made the AL All-Star team last season and has long been a burden for Houston. He headed into Friday allowing a .499 OPS against Astros hitters across 99 career plate appearances. Only the Angels and Texas Rangers have faced Muñoz more.
Muñoz had not surrendered an earned run against the Astros since Sept. 26, 2023, a span of 15 consecutive appearances. He took the mound on Friday with a two-run lead and Yordan Alvarez looming. The automatic runner at second base left first base unoccupied. Seattle chose not to walk Alvarez, the presumptive American League MVP favorite who hit his league-leading 36th home run earlier on Friday night. Alvarez bounced out to first base.
“It can’t be Alvarez every day,” Espada said.
For the Astros to advance anywhere, that must be true, especially when October baseball begins. Contributions from across the lineup are required. Some arrived Friday. Precocious outfielder Cam Smith hit a run-scoring triple. Catcher Christian Vázquez reached base twice from the nine-hole.
Franchise cornerstone Jose Altuve, mired in the worst season of his starry career, also contributed two singles. The second came with two outs and two strikes in the 10th inning. Muñoz put a slider in the other batter’s box. Somehow, Altuve lofted it into right field.
“You keep it off the ground, he’s going to hit it,” Walker said. “It’s impressive to watch.”
Altuve’s single set up Varsho to follow. His bleeder cleared the stage for Walker, who watched a 101.7 mph fastball fly by for ball one. No one in this situation seeks a home run. The focus is just to put the ball in play or get a good pitch to hit. Muñoz had given up just one home run to an Astros hitter in his career.
After surrendering the second, Muñoz sulked off the mound. Walker watched the baseball bang off an advertisement along the left field wall before turning toward the dugout he made delirious.
“That’s one of the best closers in the game,” Walker said. “That’s something to be proud of and I think that’ll get us some momentum.”
Something both the team and these two housemates themselves could use.
