MLB fans crushed the Mariners’ decision to have Robbie Ray face Yordan Alvarez in the 9th

In many ways, playoff baseball is a different game than regular season baseball. The stakes are higher, every personnel decision is made with future matchups in mind and, often times, managers can overthink situations.

Seattle Mariners manager Scott Servais appeared to fall into that trap during Tuesday’s Game 1 of the ALDS in Houston. And it backfired in a huge way.

While the Mariners have used a closer-by-committee for much of the season, Paul Seward had emerged as the most reliable closer for Seattle. He recorded 20 saves with a 2.37 ERA, but he had struggled in a couple recent outings and clearly lost Servais’ trust. When he got in trouble once again in the ninth inning and Yordan Alvarez at the plate with two outs, two on and a two-run lead, Servais opted to go for the lefty-lefty matchup.

He turned to starting pitcher Robbie Ray — on two days rest — who had never recorded a save in his big-league career. He was also coming off a rough spell of allowing six home runs in his past three appearances. Guess what happened …

On an 0-1 count, Alvarez completely smoked a 93 mph fastball from Ray for a walk-off, three-run homer to give the Astros a comeback 8-7 win.

Again, this was a ridiculous move from Servais who over-managed the matchup at the worst possible time. Starters are starters and closers are closers. He chose to mess with that dynamic in a playoff game with one of the AL’s best power hitters at the plate. There’s no way to defend it.

Even with the benefit of hindsight, MLB fans were right to crush that decision.

If the Mariners don’t come back in the series, it’s going to be impossible to overlook that decision. Just an unreal mistake.