4 things we learned from Division Series Game 1s: Astros never die
It’s mathematically impossible to win a best-of-five series in Game 1. It’s figuratively possible to lose it, though.
And a quartet of Division Series openers on Tuesday brought a bevy of surprises, heart palpitations and crucial pivot points, for Game 1 certainly and quite possibly for the series at large. Mercifully, the American League will take a day to rest after a Houston Astro made history.
But the defending champions will be fighting for their lives, while the 111-win favorites in the NL will be back at it Wednesday. A look at four things we learned from Tuesday’s Division Series openers:
Astros-Mariners: Down, but never out
It’s been eight years since the Astros began this golden era of baseball and six years of unfettered dominance that’s resulted in five consecutive trips to the AL Championship Series.
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And still, the Astros find ways to make history.
Yordan Alvarez became the first player in playoff history to hit a two-out, walk-off home run with his club trailing by multiple runs, a wallop off Robbie Ray capping an industrious comeback and sending Minute Maid Park into delirium.
Justin Verlander and Alex Bregman said they can’t remember much in the haze of victory, just knowing they had an urge to hug Alvarez. Dusty Baker, the 73-year-old manager who can reference Bill Russell or Stevie Wonder as casually as one might talk to their mailman, called the moment “so close to the top” of the moments he’d experienced in his half-century in the game. “I don’t know what the top is, but that’s very, very close to it.”
We’ll see how Alvarez’s sucker punch impacts the Mariners; ace Luis Castillo will start Game 2, which will help manager Scott Servais recover from his disastrous decision to tab Robbie Ray on two days rest to pitch to Alvarez.
But it’s rarely about the opponent.
“It happens in all sorts of different ways. We know that,” says third baseman Alex Bregman, now in his sixth postseason dance. “So we know that we’re never out of a game, and keep going.”
Bregman kept going when he cut a 7-3 Astros deficit in half with a two-run homer in the eighth. David Hensley, the 26th man on the roster for this Division Series, kept it going when he milked an eight-pitch at-bat off Mariners closer Paul Sewald, which culminated in a hit-by-pitch on a full count.
And rookie shortstop Jeremy Pena kept it going when he stung a single to dead center field off Sewald.