An epic, 18-inning win for the Astros produces only pain in Seattle
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SEATTLE — The zeros on the T-Mobile Park scoreboard, which lasted until the 18th inning Saturday, did not reflect boredom and inaction. Those were little circles of stress, containing 6 hours 22 minutes of playoff baseball tension, the weight of an elimination game that stretched the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners on an abnormally smoky October afternoon in the Pacific Northwest.
For the first time in 21 years, the Mariners hosted a postseason game, and it seemed like 21 more years would pass before it concluded. Then, at 7:12 p.m. Pacific time, more than six hours after the first pitch, Houston shortstop Jeremy Peña hit a four-seam fastball from Seattle reliever Penn Murfee over the fence in left-center. A run, finally. For the Mariners, it would signal the conclusion of a resurgent season that they fought for as long as possible not to see end. And for the Astros, playoff regulars who keep prospering, that persistence was about to be rewarded with a sixth straight appearance in the American League Championship Series.
With its 1-0 victory, Houston completed a three-game division series sweep by the thinnest of margins. Over the past decade, the Astros have won bigger games on bigger stages. They have endured plenty, including their own shame. But for a championship-caliber team that just won’t go away, this triumph in the symbolized an undervalued part of why they endure as a contender.
In only the fourth 18-inning playoff game in Major League Baseball history, they advanced. After Julio Rodríguez flied out to center field to end the game, they huddled near the pitcher’s mound and shared hugs. Some of them probably needed the embraces to stay upright. It was that kind of game. And for all that Houston has won over the years, winning this way still felt like a big deal.
Entering Saturday, it did not have the feel of a series that Houston led 2-0. The Astros had delivered heartache to the Mariners in those two games, trying to break them by rallying from a four-run deficit in the final two innings of an 8-7 victory in Game 1 on Tuesday and then outlasting Seattle during a 4-2 triumph Thursday. In both games, Yordan Alvarez hit a game-winning home run, the first a devastating three-run walk-off shot against Robbie Ray, the 2021 Cy Young Award winner who had made a surprise appearance out of the bullpen to try to close the game.
Alvarez’s heroics put Scott Servais, managing in the postseason for the first time with Seattle, under fire for the decision to trust Ray in an unfamiliar spot. But for as crushing as the defeat should have been, the Mariners played Game 2 with their usual confidence and style, and behind starter Luis Castillo, they took a 2-1 lead into the sixth inning before Alvarez changed everything again with a two-run blast.
Two pitches — and two prodigious swings by Alvarez — kept Houston from being another favorite to find trouble early in a postseason that has been harsh for the best regular season teams. But the Astros knew better than to feel comfortable. If it was that hard to hold serve at home, it would be an even greater challenge to close out a team playing its first playoff home game in more than two decades.
Before a crowd of 47,690 in Seattle, the Astros wouldn’t just face a hungry, raucous audience. They would be on trial for their old cheating sins again.
“This team is probably as prepared as any,” Manager Dusty Baker said before the game. “All of the boos and scorns we’ve had the last three years.”
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It’s quite the task, going pitch for pitch and situation for situation with the Astros. They’ve seen it all by now. They’ve been it all, too: champions, cheaters, resilient winners, oh-so-close also-rans. They have forced you to hate them, tempted you to admire them and made you fear them. This is their sixth straight playoff appearance and seventh in the past eight seasons. They’ve won a World Series and finished runner-up two other times. They entered these playoffs having advanced at least as far as the ALCS every year since 2017.
The sign-stealing scandal tarnished their success, but their run has lasted so long — and they’ve continued winning at the same level since being exposed — that it isn’t fair to ignore all they’ve accomplished as fraudulent. There is no dismissing them. There is no rattling them. You have to beat them, and sometimes that means outlasting every bit of them.
Mariners starter George Kirby and Houston’s Lance McCullers Jr. set the tone. Kirby, a rookie making his first postseason start, threw seven innings and allowed six hits. He was able to stay composed during fidgety situations, and he stranded seven Astros. McCullers allowed just two hits and two walks over six innings.
Pitching and defense couldn’t make up for what Game 3 lacked in offense. As the scoreless anxiety ventured into extra innings, the experience went from riveting to exhausting. Hitters stopped grinding through at-bats and tried to end it with one swing. The game’s first three hours included enough high-pressure moments for edge-of-seat fascination, but even as both teams went deep into their bullpens, the threat of offense diminished.
Then Peña came to the plate. The rookie is new to the Astros, but by the end of this night, it seemed he had been there the whole time.
