SEATTLE -- The circumstances seemed about as dire as you could imagine. The Astros pulled into Safeco Field riding a seven-game losing streak Monday and with the unenviable task of facing Mariners ace Felix Hernandez, who has been dominant this year.Baseball, as they say, is a funny game.The Astros enjoyed all the laughs in their first meeting of the season against the Mariners, getting a two-run homer from Matt Dominguez and a solid performance from starting pitcher Dallas Keuchel to send Seattle to its seventh consecutive loss, 7-2. 
The seven runs tied a season high for the Astros. They had scored eight in their previous four games.Keuchel (2-1) won by allowing six hits and two runs in six innings for the second start in a row, this time striking out eight batters. He has quality starts in each of his last three outings, lowering his ERA to 3.38.Hernandez, meanwhile, entered the game with a 2-1 career record in four starts against the Astros with a 2.00 ERA.He walked Jose Altuve to start the game before retiring the next nine batters he faced and 12 of 13. It appeared he was on his way to another big night when Alex Presley (3-for-4) singled with one out in the fifth and Dominguez launched a two-run homer to left to put Houston ahead, 2-0.The Mariners tied it moments later on a two-run double down the right-field line by Abraham Almonte in the bottom of the fifth.Altuve led off the sixth with a double to left and wound up safe at third when Kyle Seager dropped a throw from catcher Mike Zunino following a Dexter Fowler bunt. The error wound up leading to four unearned runs in the inning.That's because Astros catcher Jason Castro hit a sac fly to make it 3-2, and Marc Krauss had an RBI single and Presley had a RBI triple with two outs. Presley then scored on a long Dominguez fly ball to left that hit off the wall for a double, pushing the lead to 6-2.Hernandez (3-1) worked seven innings and allowed six runs (two earned) and seven hits.Chad Qualls, who blew a ninth-inning save for the Astros on Saturday in Oakland, rebounded to work a 1-2-3 seventh inning. Krauss blasted his second homer of the season to right field in the eighth to stretch Houston's lead to five.Brian McTaggart / MLB.com
The seven runs tied a season high for the Astros. They had scored eight in their previous four games.Keuchel (2-1) won by allowing six hits and two runs in six innings for the second start in a row, this time striking out eight batters. He has quality starts in each of his last three outings, lowering his ERA to 3.38.Hernandez, meanwhile, entered the game with a 2-1 career record in four starts against the Astros with a 2.00 ERA.He walked Jose Altuve to start the game before retiring the next nine batters he faced and 12 of 13. It appeared he was on his way to another big night when Alex Presley (3-for-4) singled with one out in the fifth and Dominguez launched a two-run homer to left to put Houston ahead, 2-0.The Mariners tied it moments later on a two-run double down the right-field line by Abraham Almonte in the bottom of the fifth.Altuve led off the sixth with a double to left and wound up safe at third when Kyle Seager dropped a throw from catcher Mike Zunino following a Dexter Fowler bunt. The error wound up leading to four unearned runs in the inning.That's because Astros catcher Jason Castro hit a sac fly to make it 3-2, and Marc Krauss had an RBI single and Presley had a RBI triple with two outs. Presley then scored on a long Dominguez fly ball to left that hit off the wall for a double, pushing the lead to 6-2.Hernandez (3-1) worked seven innings and allowed six runs (two earned) and seven hits.Chad Qualls, who blew a ninth-inning save for the Astros on Saturday in Oakland, rebounded to work a 1-2-3 seventh inning. Krauss blasted his second homer of the season to right field in the eighth to stretch Houston's lead to five.Brian McTaggart / MLB.com
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