HOUSTON — The Mariners’ best pitcher, and one of the most dominant pitchers in the early stages of this postseason, stood on the mound ready for another battle with his team leading by a run in the sixth inning and the tying run on first base.
The Astros’ best hitter, and one of the most dominant hitters in baseball all season, stood in the box — looming larger than his listed 6-5, 225 pounds — ready to crush the hopes and dreams of the postseason neophytes trying to invade on their American League dynasty.
Given what transpired on Tuesday night and the deliciously dramatic nature of postseason baseball, another meeting between Luis Castillo and Yordan Alvarez with the game’s outcome in the balance just had to happen.
With the same expression he carried for the previous five innings, including retiring Alvarez twice on a weak ground out and shallow pop out, Castillo seemed unaware of the 47,774 standing and roaring in anticipation.
Alvarez, who showed in the first two failed at-bats that he had no interest in walking, was ready to hit.
Castillo fired a first-pitch 94-mph sinker well off the plate that Alvarez fouled off. Knowing he didn’t need to throw a strike to get Alvarez to swing, Castillo didn’t. He threw another 98-mph sinker away. But this pitch was about an inch closer to the plate than the previous one, and that’s all Alvarez needed.
He launched a line drive into the short porch known as the Crawford Boxes for the go-ahead two-run homer, turning a one-run deficit into a one-run lead and eventual 4-2 victory for the Astros.
Gutted by two straight losses due to Alvarez’s late-inning heroics, the Mariners must now recover and try to avoid elimination in Game 3 on Saturday at T-Mobile Park.
Perhaps what hurt the situation the most is that the Mariners could’ve been out of that sixth inning without Alvarez stepping foot into the batter’s box by retiring Jeremy Pena, whose presence on base in front of Alvarez has been just as much of an issue.
With Julio Rodriguez playing deep, not wanting allow any extra-base hit with a one-run lead, Pena lofted a pop fly to shallow center field. It was reminiscent of J.P. Crawford’s bases-loaded pop out in Toronto.
With Adam Frazier racing out from his spot and Rodriguez sprinting in on the play, the ball dropped in between them. Rodriguez slowed up and didn’t dive, not wanting to crash into Frazier. And if Rodriguez does dive and doesn’t make the catch, Pena has the double and the tying run is in scoring position, which was the whole situation to avoid and the reason for playing deep.
It allowed Alvarez to play the hero once again.
Castillo’s only major mistake was a hanging slider that Kyle Tucker hit for a solo homer in the fourth inning.
For those with the thinking that Castillo should’ve intentionally walked Alvarez in that situation, they got to see the repercussions of that in the eighth inning.
Andres Munoz, Seattle’s best reliever, walked Pena with two outs and manager Scott Servais decided to intentionally walk Alvarez and take his chances with Alex Bregman.
Bregman, who hit a two-run homer off Munoz on Tuesday, smoked a line drive single to right to score Pena.
That insurance run loomed large in the ninth with the Mariners
While much will be debated about Alvarez hurting them, Seattle still only scored two runs.
The Mariners picked up their only two runs off Astros starter Framber Valdez in the fourth inning.
After walking Eugenio Suarez with one out and getting noticeably irritated at home plate umpire Janson Visconti for not calling two pitches strikes — though they were balls — Valdez seemed to lose his focus and rhythm.
He fell behind Mitch Haniger and left a 3-1 fastball in the middle that was turned into a double down the line.
With runners on second and third, Carlos Santana hit slow bouncer in between the mound and the third base line. Valdez hustled off the mound and fired wildly to home. The ball got past catcher Martin Maldonado, allowing Suarez to score.
However, the ball hit so hard off the backstop, it rolled right back to Maldonado. Santana, who expected to take second on the error, got caught in a run down and was eventually tagged out.
Dylan Moore made up for the miscue, dumping a single on the first pitch he saw from Valdez into right field to score Haniger and give Seattle a 2-1 lead.
But it was all Seattle would get against him. Valdez came back with a 1-2-3 fifth inning and worked into the sixth.
After getting Ty France to ground out to short and striking out Eugenio Suarez swinging, Valdez walked Haniger on five pitches, throwing four consecutive balls. His outing ended when Carlos Santana double into the right-center gap, putting runners on second and third.
Eschewing the cursory numbers that say switch-hitting catcher Cal Raleigh is a more accomplished from the left-side of the plate, Astros manager Dusty Baker went to right-hander Hector Neris.
In his first at-bat of the game from the left-side, Raleigh grounded out softly to the right side of the field to end the inning.
Valdez pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits with three walks and six strikeouts.
This story will be updated.