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The Astros' left fielder capped a 3-for-5, five-RBI performance
with his walk-off shot to complete the Houston comeback. The
Astros trailed 4-0 in the second inning, 6-2 in the fourth and
7-3 in the seventh before fashioning their stunning rally,
scoring a combined five runs off Andres Munoz, Paul Sewald and
Robbie Ray.
With history calling, Alvarez drilled an 0-1 sinker from Ray
into the upper deck in right. Alvarez became the second player
in major league history to record a walk-off postseason home run
with his team down to the final out, with Kirk Gibson doing so
in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. It marked the first walk-off
postseason homer with a team trailing by multiple runs and the
seventh in Astros history, their first since Carlos Correa ended
Game 5 of the 2020 ALCS.
"Very emotional, very special moment," Alvarez said. "(Astros
starter) Justin Verlander didn't have the greatest outing,
didn't have the outing that we're used to seeing from him. But
just very special that I was able to help the team win.
"When I hit that ball and I saw the ball go, obviously, I could
feel all the fans getting super loud and super excited. And I'm
still super excited. To this moment, I still haven't fully
assimilated what happened, but I think it's just one of the most
special moments of my career."
The Mariners can relate to how the end of Tuesday's game felt
from the opposite dugout. Seattle rallied from a seven-run
deficit to oust the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday and sweep that
best-of-three AL wild-card series.
The Mariners rocked Verlander, Houston's best pitcher, and were
three outs away from securing a 1-0 series lead with their ace,
Luis Castillo, scheduled to start Game 2 on Thursday. Now the
onus falls upon Seattle to rebound from this staggering blow, a
haymaker that came unexpectedly.
"Yeah, it's a tough one, there's no question about it," Mariners
manager Scott Servais said. "I thought we played a very good
ball game today. We did a lot of great things offensively.
Certainly, we got on Verlander early in the game and did exactly
what we needed to do there.
"But as I talked early about it and our team about it, it's like
a heavyweight fight. You're going to get punched. It's how you
respond in those moments and that's a tough one."
Verlander, making his first postseason start since Game 6 of the
2019 World Series, did not look the part of an AL Cy Young Award
favorite. He allowed six runs on 10 hits and one walk with three
strikeouts over four innings, matching the most earned runs he's
allowed in a postseason start while surpassing the eight hits he
surrendered in Game 5 of the 2011 AL Championship Series against
the Texas Rangers. Houston lamented the five days between its
regular-season finale and the series opener against the
Mariners, and Verlander appeared rusty given the results.
But Houston kept pushing back offensively. Alvarez produced a
two-run double off Seattle starter Logan Gilbert that sliced a
4-0 deficit in half. Yuli Gurriel smacked a leadoff home run off
Gilbert in the fourth that pulled Houston to within 6-3.
When Mariners third baseman Eugenio Suarez smoked a solo home
run to left off Astros reliever Cristian Javier with one out in
the seventh, Seattle appeared to have finally wrested control of
Game 1. But Alex Bregman clubbed his 13th career postseason
homer -- tied with the Dodgers' Justin Turner for the most
all-time by a third baseman -- off Munoz in the eighth, scoring
Alvarez, as Houston clawed to within 7-5.
Rafael Montero (1-0) pitched a perfect ninth for the Astros. In
the bottom of the inning, Sewald got two outs, but hit pinch
hitter David Hensley with a pitch before allowing a single to
another rookie, Jeremy Pena. Servais removed Sewald in favor of
the lefty Ray (0-1) to pitch to Alvarez.
"Today I thought we had it in hand," Servais said. "You got to
give them credit. Certainly, they have been in this spot many
times before and you don't quit."
--By MK Bower, Field Level Media
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