If there were ever a team in need of an off day Thursday, it was the Mariners, who got a rare break in the schedule at the point where they had lost 21 of their previous 28 games.

“Off days can be very valuable,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said Friday afternoon. “… If nothing more than to get away from the ballpark and the job at hand and to take a reset.”

Servais said this hours before the Mariners welcomed the first-place Astros into T-Mobile Park for the first of three games, with Justin Verlander and his microscopic 1.22 ERA and 19-inning scoreless streak set to start the opener.

So what did the scuffling Mariners do? On their way to a 6-1 win in front of a crowd of 26,017, they hit four home runs off Verlander and had more hits against him (10) than he’s absorbed in any start he’s made for the Astros in his career (83 of them).

So, did anyone else see that coming?

At this rate, the Mariners (19-27) might want to petition the league for more days off. And if that doesn’t work, they can take the aggressive game plan they had against Verlander and roll it into their game Saturday and subsequent ones.

“There’s been no hotter pitcher in the league than Verlander … he’s just been off the charts,” Servais said. “The plan going in tonight was to be aggressive. You’ll get a pitch to hit, and you got to put it in play. You can’t miss it. And we were super aggressive tonight.”

This offensive outburst, fueled by home runs from Julio Rodríguez, Kyle Lewis, Ty France and Taylor Trammell, was plenty of backing for pitcher Chris Flexen, who limited the Astros (29-17) to one run over seven innings.

And though it’s ridiculous to point to one game in May as being critical to a team’s playoff aspirations, a big win like the one the Mariners had Friday can do wonders for the psyche of a team that hasn’t played well during the past six weeks.

This was the first time since a 13-7 win over the Royals on April 23 that the Mariners won a game by five or more runs.

“We’re at a point where we need to get after it,” Servais said.

The Mariners entered play Friday in last place in the American League West, staring up at the rest of the division, with the Astros 11 games ahead of them. Seattle had just dropped two of three to the A’s — the last coming Wednesday afternoon.

“We’re going through painful times,” Servais said the Wednesday loss.

And, really, that still holds true, though a day away from the ballpark Thursday at least allowed the Mariners to escape their problems, even if for just one day.

No, this is far from a perfect team. The Mariners might not be a great team, either. But they certainly are not as bad as they have been of late, which provides some hope — a glimmer, maybe more — that things can and will get better.

As Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto told Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic on Thursday: “We feel like the talent is here … we just haven’t played well.”

Some of that talent showed up early Friday, as Rodríguez followed France’s single with his sixth home run of the season, an opposite-field shot that just snuck over the wall in right field. Three batters later, Lewis connected for a two-run shot to left-center field.

Lewis’ plate appearance was gratifying and important for a lot of reasons. First, it was Lewis’ first homer in 364 days — before his season ended last May with a knee injury. It also got to the root of what the Mariners were trying to do while facing Verlander. Lewis swung and missed at the first two pitches he saw but eventually got a cutter up and drove it.

“A guy like that (Verlander), you don’t get too many opportunities,” Lewis said. “I was just trying to be as aggressive as possible.”

Verlander, who had allowed just seven runs in 51 2/3 innings entering this start, was suddenly in a deep hole, and it was about to get deeper. France, who had three hits and is hitting .341, hit a solo homer in the third inning. Trammell got his first home run since coming up from Triple A, another solo shot in the sixth inning.

On the pitching side, Flexen (2-6) allowed one run on seven hits with one walk and six strikeouts. He benefited from a handful of fine defensive plays behind him. Flexen entered the game with a 4.98 ERA and had been struggling to replicate his form from a year ago, when he came out of nowhere to win 14 games with a 3.61 ERA.

Flexen got nine ground-ball outs on his fastball, cutter and changeup. He had only six swinging strikes but got a lot of early contact and kept infielders engaged. A year ago, he had six starts when he went seven or more innings and allowed one or fewer runs. He’s done it twice this season, including Friday.

“That’s how he was last year,” Servais said of Flexen. “He was totally in command, just dominating the strike zone, going right after guys and trusting his stuff.”

As rare as games like these have been for the Mariners, it was a reminder that this was just one game. But it was also a reminder that games like this are possible.

“We’re better than how we have played,” Servais said.

(Photo of Ty France: Stephen Brashear / Getty Images)