Pena: Shows he has heart
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It took the Astros four games to complete their three-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners. For those Washingtonians in attendance who waited 21 years to see the Mariners host a playoff game, they got their money's worth in terms of time of game - a six hour, 22 minute marathon. What they didn't get was many runs as Houston's dominant pitching blanked the M's until the Houston offense finally got the run it needed. The 1-0 18-inning whitewash completed a three-game sweep by the Astros of their Division Series (LDS) and sealed Houston's sixth straight League Championship Series (LCS) appearance.
As this is being written, the other LDS series between Cleveland and the Yankees has not completed but Cleveland has a 2-1 advantage going into Sunday night. The first LCS game will be in Houston on Wednesday night. It will be a best-of-7 series.
Rookie Jeremy Pena smacked a solo homer into the third row of seats in left-center for the game's first and only run. Pena has been a more-than-adequate replacement for Carlos Correa this year and it's nice Pena also has Correa's knack for the postseason spotlight.
Both teams had their chances to score earlier but failed to do so. Houston had three innings against starter George Kirby with two or more runners on base but couldn't cash in. The Mariners did so once against Houston starter Lance McCullers who threw his usual six innings of shutout ball.
In the ninth, the Astros had runners get to second and third but Matt Brash fanned Christian Vazquez and Jose Altuve to end the threat. Seattle put two on in the ninth against Ryan Pressly but Houston wriggled out of it.
By now, both bullpens had taken over and were generally in control. In the 14th, Luis Garcia, who was normally a starting pitcher, took over and sent the game the rest of the way. Finally, Pena broke the tie in the 18th and Garcia looked like a closer in the bottom half, shutting down the Mariners' last hope, 1-2-3.
The Astros gave up seven hits and three walks for the afternoon while Seattle allowed 11 hits and one walk to go with three hit batsmen. Houston struck out 20 times. Seattle fanned 22 times.
Altuve had the worst batting line, going 0-for-8. In fact, he was hitless for the entire division series. Alex Bregman and Yuli Gurriel earned three hits apiece on Saturday.
The end must have been bittersweet for Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh who played all 18 innings with a broken glove hand and strained ligaments. Raleigh had toughed out the pain for over a month, delaying surgery so he could finish the season. Think that's easy? Imagine having a busted hand that had to snag fastballs at 95-100 miles per hour for nine long innings, much less eighteen. That's one tough guy.
I'm sure the clincher gave Astros fans flashbacks to 2005 when Chris Burke hit the dramatic 18th-inning homer and Roger Clemens was the starter who entered late for relief duties in a memorable clincher against Atlanta. If any team has the arms to endure an 18-inning slog, it's this year's Astros with essentially six starting pitchers. If a Game Four was needed, they would still have a fresh Cristian Javier and a fresh Jose Urquidy available as well as Game 1 starter Justin Verlander if needed.
Among the highest seeded teams, only Houston and the Yankees are still alive with the Yankees needing to win two more games if they are going to renew their long-awaited rematch with the Astros. Over in the National League, the favorite Dodgers, Braves and Mets have all been eliminated. The winner of the ALCS will see either the Phillies or the Padres.
For now, the Astros will get a three-day layoff before the next round begins while the Yankees and Guardians complete their series.
- Bob Hulsey
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