The Seattle Mariners have certainly made up for lost time after waiting 21 years to host a postseason game.
But the instant classic didn’t turn out to be an advantage, as the Houston Astros advanced to their sixth straight American League Championship Series with a 1-0, 18-inning win, and swept the Mariners in the best-of-five series.
There were only seven baserunners from the 10th to the 17th, but Jeremy Peña was enough in the 18th. He finally turned the scoreboard on with a leadoff home run, and that was all it took. was.
In the ninth inning, Yuri Gurriel had his third hit of the day on a single off of Diego Castillo. He then struck out the next batter on Arredomis Diaz and put them both in scoring position with a sack bunt. Scott Servais brought in his Matt Brash and it worked perfectly. Brash struck out Christian Vazquez and a dangerous Jose Altuve to get out of the jam.
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The Astros closed in on Ryan Presley in the bottom of the ninth, but he put runners on first and second with one out. However, he beat Carlos Santana and skipped Adam Fraser to send the game to the extras, still scoreless.
There was little movement over the next eight innings. Yes, 8 innings. In fact, there were only four runners from 10th to 15th.
The Mariners hit homers in the 12th, 13th, 14th and 17th innings to no avail. In the 16th inning, the Astros had one out on second base, and Alex Bregman moved up to third on a fly ball, but Diaz moved up to third.
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In the biggest start of his career, George Kirby silenced the Astros bat, but Lance McCullers matched him every step of the way. The Mariners used eight pitchers in relief and emptied the bullpen. . Together, he pitched 11 innings. Houston’s, however, was just a little better.
Both teams had just 25 baserunners combined and had 42 strikeouts.
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With the top three hitters in the Astros lineup (Altuve, Pena and Jordan Alvarez) combined, they were 1-for-22, but they only needed one.
But after a long, tough 18-inning inning, Houston will have three days off as they wait for an American League Division Series winner between the Yankees and the Guardians. Cleveland is 2-1 in his 9 comebacks.