HOUSTON — The game on the line, the Seattle Mariners’ season most certainly on the line, Dan Wilson stretched his right leg onto the top step of the visitors’ dugout and leaned forward, eyeing his starting pitcher intently.

At Bryce Miller’s first hint of trouble all night, with two runners in scoring position in the seventh inning and the Mariners desperately trying to protect a tenuous two-run lead, Wilson did not budge.

He showed no hint of entertaining the idea of turning to the bullpen.

Miller rewarded his new manager’s faith, striking out the next two batters — Victor Carantini and Jeremy Peña — with his split-fingered fastball, stranding both runners and ending the Astros’ only real threat.

Punctuating the most important start of his big-league career, Miller gently patted his chest three times and then pointed his right index finger to the sky, lifting up the Mariners’ playoff hopes for at least one more day in a 6-1 victory over the rival Astros before a mostly quiet crowd at Minute Maid Park.

Back here at a place that has haunted them, against a team that has tormented them, the Mariners (81-76) managed to delay the Astros’ clinching of the American League West title.

The Astros (85-72) still lead the Mariners by four games with five games remaining, needing only one win in the next two games against the M’s to win the division yet again.

But that champagne will chill for at least one more day.

The Mariners pulled within 1 1/2 games in the AL wild card, with the Tigers, Royals and Twins all idle Monday.

Playing in front of a couple dozen friends and family, Miller allowed just two hits — both singles — with two walks and five strikes over seven scoreless innings.

In three career starts at Minute Maid Park, Miller is 2-0 and has allowed just four earned runs in 19 1/3 innings.

Peña’s infield single in the second inning was the only hit Miller allowed through six innings, retiring 13 in a row entering the seventh.

Cal Raleigh staked the Mariners a 1-0 lead in the third inning when he drove in Victor Robles from second base with a two-out broken-bat single. Robles scored just ahead of throw from right fielder Kyle Tucker.

Julio Rodriguez made it 2-0 in the seventh with a sharp two-strike single up the middle, scoring Justin Turner from third base. However, just before J.P. Crawford touched home plate, Dylan Moore was thrown out at third base trying to take an extra bag — wiping away Crawford’s run.

After Miller escaped in the bottom of the seventh, the Mariners added two more runs in each of the final two innings.

Turner’s sac fly in the eighth scored Raleigh and Jorge Polanco’s double drove in Randy Arozarena.

In the ninth, Victor Robles, Julio Rodriguez and Arozarena all doubled to score two more and make it 6-1.

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