Major League Baseball

2022 MLB Playoffs: Astros, Yordan Alvarez storm back, stun M's in Game 1

Updated Oct. 11, 2022 9:31 p.m. ET

By Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writer

Moments before popping the champagne in Toronto following the Mariners' emphatic sweep of the Blue Jays in the Wild-Card Series, manager Scott Servais reminded his team what was coming next: "Y’all know where we’re going. It ain’t gonna be easy."

It’s important to understand the context of this seemingly innocuous sentiment that you might hear from every manager. It’s not just that the Mariners were advancing to the next round to face an inherently stronger opponent who had earned a bye. It’s not just that they’d be facing the American League’s best team, which is making its sixth straight postseason appearance. It’s that they were heading to Minute Maid Park in particular, Seattle’s personal house of horrors over the past four seasons.

Since the start of 2019, the Mariners have gone 7-30 in Houston with a minus-132 run differential. Now, the 2019 Seattle team was far worse than the current squad; this year, the Mariners managed a 3-4 record with just a minus-9 run differential at Minute Maid. But still, struggling mightily in Houston has been an undeniable trend over the bulk of Servais’ tenure, hence the delicate reminder of the challenge ahead.

Yet for the first few innings of Game 1 of the ALDS, the scorching-hot Mariners were making it look stunningly easy. Facing future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander, Seattle produced 10 hits, six batted balls struck in excess of 100 mph and six runs before the AL Cy Young candidate departed after the fourth inning.

But the Astros are the Astros for a reason. Down 7-3 after seven innings, Alex Bregman launched a two-run homer off flamethrower Andrés Muñoz to cut the deficit to two in the eighth. In the ninth, rookies David Hensley and Jeremy Pena reached base to allow fearsome slugger Yordan Alvarez to step to the plate.

With closer Paul Sewald struggling, Servais decided to press many managers' favorite postseason button: bringing in a decorated starter to close things out. In came last year's Cy Young Award winner, Robbie Ray, to try to retire Alvarez.

He did not retire Alvarez.

Yordan Alvarez launches three-run walk-off home run

Yordan Alvarez launches a three-run, walk-off home run off Robbie Ray to give the Houston Astros a Game 1 ALDS win over the Seattle Mariners.

Game over. Astros win 8-7. It was never going to be easy for the Mariners.

What went right for the Astros

It wasn’t just his epic, walk-off dinger; Alvarez had two other hits, including a two-RBI double in the third inning and a single preceding Bregman’s two-run blast in the eighth. In case anyone needed a reminder that Alvarez has a legitimate case for Best Hitter On Earth — and no, I have not forgotten about the dude in New York who just hit 62 home runs — this game was a triumphant argument in his favor.

The Houston bullpen also deserves credit for keeping things relatively close after Verlander’s disastrous outing. Besides Eugenio Suarez's solo home run in the seventh, Bryan Abreu, Cristian Javier, Hunter Brown and Rafael Montero stabilized things considerably for the final five frames.

What went wrong for the Mariners

As bizarre as it was, the Mariners experienced essentially a mirror image of their heroic victory over the Blue Jays on Saturday. In that game, Ray and Sewald struggled early, putting the Mariners in a deep hole they miraculously climbed out of at the last minute. On Tuesday, the Mariners jumped to a surprising but fairly comfortable lead before Sewald and Ray came in and struggled, resulting in a catastrophic loss at the last second.

As for the decision to bring in Ray, that will certainly be a topic of discussion among die-hard fans and neutral observers alike for the next 24 hours. Ray’s struggles in Toronto last weekend and his struggles against the Astros all season left many wondering if he’d even be in line to start Game 3 following Logan Gilbert and Luis Castillo.

Instead, it seems the Mariners were prepared to use him as a bullpen weapon early in the series if the situation called for it.

Was this the right situation? Alvarez is quite simply one of the best hitters on earth — he posted a .998 OPS against southpaws, compared to a 1.030 against right-handers this season — so treating him like a potentially easier out vs. a lefty was foolish to begin with. More problematic than Ray entering at all was the pitch selection and location, especially after Alvarez fouled off a nearly identical pitch with a vicious swing right before his fateful blast.

Key moment of the game

Hmmm if I had to pick one, I’d probably go with Alvarez launching a ball 117 mph and 439 feet to the second deck in right field to win the ballgame on a walk-off home run. That felt like a fairly important moment.

All kidding aside, beyond the jaw-dropping game-winner, the second-most important at-bat came a few batters before Alvarez strolled into the box and Ray trotted in from the bullpen. With Mauricio Dubon scheduled to hit, Dusty Baker called on rookie David Hensley to pinch hit in his first career postseason plate appearance. This is a guy who just made his MLB debut at the end of August and received only 34 plate appearances before being put on the postseason roster, yet here he was in a spectacularly high-leverage situation.

That he was able to foul off a couple of tough pitches from Sewald and reach base via hit-by-pitch after an eight-pitch battle was a remarkable achievement that helped give Alvarez the chance to be the hero.

What happens next

A quirk in this year’s postseason schedule has placed an off-day between Games 1 and 2 of both ALDS series, which means the Mariners will be forced to sit and stew on this heartbreaker for more than 24 hours.

Fortunately, Seattle will be able to hand the ball to Castillo, fresh off a tremendous outing Friday in Toronto, when Game 2 finally gets underway Thursday. Houston starter Framber Valdez is a tough assignment for any lineup, but if Seattle’s offense can continue to hum like it did against Verlander, Castillo should give Seattle a great chance to return home with a series split.

Jordan Shusterman is half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. Follow him on Twitter @j_shusterman_.