Houston and Seattle Exchange Fireworks in Extended ALDS Game 1 Duel

The Mariners didn’t have an imposing offense this season. They hung their hat on pitching and defense, with a pinch of offense when they most needed it. The Astros turned otherwise-imposing offenses into weaklings; they allowed a shocking 3.2 runs per game, second only to the Dodgers in the majors. They brought out the likely Cy Young winner for today’s matchup. I’m sure you can see where this is going: Seattle scored seven runs and allowed eight.

It’s fair to say that Justin Verlander didn’t have his best stuff today. His slider came out flat; of the first eight that the Mariners swung at, they came up empty on only one. His fastball was scattershot, its normal backspinning movement coming and going, as did his command of the pitch. But he might have gotten away with it, if it weren’t for that meddling kid.

The kid, in this instance, is Julio Rodríguez. He’s an electric talent, a generational Seattle superstar in the mold of Ken Griffey Jr. After a sensational rookie season, he had a quiet start to the playoffs in Toronto, but he was in the straw that stirred the drink for Seattle today.

In the first, Rodríguez set the tone for the pesky Mariners. Verlander threw him a first pitch fastball, and Rodríguez took a mighty hack — foul. Verlander didn’t want any of that smoke, with good reason: Rodríguez is perhaps the best fastball hitter in the game. The next four pitches were out of the strike zone. Rodríguez took each one and walked. Three batters later, he scored on a Cal Raleigh single.

Rodríguez came to the plate again in the second, this time with two on and one out. Verlander got ahead this time, though not in the way he would have preferred. He challenged Rodríguez twice with fastballs, both of which Rodríguez swung under. Now in a 1-2 count — Rodríguez had spit on an 0–1 slider — Verlander went back to the well: 98 mph, top of the zone. It didn’t matter. Rodríguez unloaded, and by the time Chas McCormick retrieved the ball in right-center, he was on second with the Mariners leading 3–0. He scored on a Ty France single later in the inning.

The next time Rodríguez batted, the Mariners led, 5–2, on the back of a J.P. Crawford home run. Verlander had a new plan: no fastballs. It’s a great plan, in theory. Rodríguez took one for a strike and then waved at one just off the outside corner. Verlander doubled up on the pitch on 0–2; this time, Rodríguez took it for a ball. The 1–2 was another perfect slider, dotting the low and away corner. Rodriguez laced it to center and took off running; 11 seconds later, he was standing on third. One batter later, he was trotting home, and the Mariners were up 6–2.

That’s the kind of star performance that MLB wishes its best players could produce on command. Rodríguez came into the series as the fulcrum of the Seattle offense. He batted in big spots and delivered. The sport usually doesn’t work like that; sometimes the biggest moment is a middle reliever against a no. 9 hitter or something equally silly. Today, though, was a Hollywood marquee: the upstart kid against the old gunslinger in a Houston bandbox.

Luckily for Houston, the game didn’t end at 6–2 in the fourth inning. The Astros have a young phenom of their own — several, actually, but I’m referring to Yordan Alvarez here, perhaps the best left-handed hitter in baseball and still only 25. In the bottom of the third, he opened the Houston scoring, coming to the plate with two on and two out against Logan Gilbert and golfing a hanging curveball off the left field wall to score both runners.

Immediately after Rodríguez scored in the top of the fourth, France tried to score from second on a single. Alvarez, generally known as a DH-level defender, uncorked an absolute laser beam from left to get France by a mile. That shut the door on Seattle’s rally and also Verlander’s day: four innings, six earned runs, three strikeouts, and absolutely no answer for Rodríguez.

For 90 minutes or so, that fourth inning felt decisive despite Alvarez’s defense. Each team added a run on a Crawford Box home run to left, but Seattle’s margin held as the two teams exchanged lockdown innings from excellent bullpens. Erstwhile starters Cristian Javier and Hunter Brown pumped fastballs for Houston. Slider merchants Matt Brash and Diego Castillo held serve for Seattle.

Houston was running out of time to even things up, but in the eighth inning, Alvarez — who else — got things started by vaporizing an Andrés Muñoz slider to right. Muñoz throws 103 mph and sports one of the best sliders in baseball, but it wasn’t enough; Alvarez hit one 114 mph off the bat, so hard that it slammed into the right field wall on the fly and caromed to Mitch Haniger, leaving him with a single. Alex Bregman — oh yeah, the Astros have a ton of offensive firepower I haven’t mentioned yet — followed by tagging another slider for a two-run homer, narrowing the gap to 7–5.

Muñoz finished the eighth without further damage, but Houston had another three outs to work with. Paul Sewald, Seattle’s closer, made things interesting by hitting David Hensley, a rookie pinch-hitter in the no. 9 spot. That set up some simple math: retire the next two batters or face Alvarez with the tying run on base. That’s a disaster from a Seattle standpoint; Houston has plenty of good hitters, but Alvarez is its best by far. There’s no one Houston would prefer to send to the plate, no one Seattle would less like to see. Unfortunately for the Mariners, Sewald couldn’t solve the equation. After Jose Altuve struck out, Jeremy Peña — yet another excellent youngster — singled with two outs to set up a decisive duel.

Let’s set the stage again: the gunslinger against the young gun. The gunslinger this time was Robbie Ray, the 2021 AL Cy Young winner, summoned from the bullpen in relief. The young gun? Alvarez, a historically powerful lefty having his best season and absolutely aflame so far in this game. It’s not quite revolvers at high noon, but it was at least the baseball equivalent. If Ray could retire Alvarez, he’d win. If Alvarez homered, he’d walk it off.

Ray didn’t dance around. He came out firing, hurling a first-pitch sinker over the heart of the plate. Alvarez took a mighty hack at the first one and fouled it off. He didn’t miss the second one.

Yordan rules. #Postseason pic.twitter.com/yaQAKx8bFw

— MLB (@MLB) October 11, 2022

Alvarez has a beautiful swing; his huge frame seems to slow down and then fast forward as he brings his bat through the zone. That acceleration turned Ray’s pitch, another center-cut sinker, into a souvenir. He absolutely demolished it — a scorching 117 mph exit velocity — and sent the ball 438 feet, a no doubter among no doubters.

The old man faced the kid, and the kid won. Luckily for Houston, its kid got last licks. Seattle will try to even the series on Thursday, but it learned a tough lesson today. The franchise might have one of the transcendent stars of the game, but Houston has one of its own, and he’s got a posse with him.

Odds and Ends

– Gilbert leaned heavily on his curveball, a surprise after he barely used it in September. His feel for the pitch was excellent, and it garnered seven of his 13 whiffs.

– Verlander used his own curveball quite a lot, but did much worse with it than Gilbert. The Mariners swung at nine curves and didn’t miss a single one. He also struggled to locate it for strikes, getting only four called strikes with it. I’d expect a pitch mix change next time out.

– Is Peña a warlock? He applied a mind-bending tag to catch Jarred Kelenic stealing in the top of the eighth inning and generally showed off his defensive brilliance. Kelenic, for his part, had a two-hit night to break out of an extended slump.

– Alvarez accounted for six of Houston’s runs, and Rodríguez accounted for five of Seattle’s. Alvarez also took a Seattle run off the board with his outfield assist.

– Eugenio Suárez got back to his homering ways, and Yuli Gurriel notched one of his own on a three-hit night.

– Rafael Montero, DFA’ed by Seattle last year, pitched a scoreless inning to earn the win.