HOUSTON — Yordan Alvarez beat the Mariners in Game 1 with a heartbreaking blast to right field on Tuesday. The Astros slugger beat them again in Game 2 with a home run to Minute Maid Park’s short porch in left field on Thursday.
“It makes me sick that he’s beat us two (games) in a row single-handedly,” Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh said Thursday evening after the Astros’ 4-2 come-from-behind victory. “As a catcher, you feel partially responsible. It wasn’t a terrible pitch, but that’s kind of how it goes and how the stadium is here.”
It really was a bloop and a blast — that old baseball adage — that wiped out the Mariners’ lead and spoiled another postseason gem from right-hander Luis Castillo in Game 2 of the American League Division Series.
Castillo was dealing again Thursday, six days after his masterful performance in Toronto in Game 1 of the wild-card series. He made only one mistake through the first five-plus innings — leaving a slider over the middle of the plate that Kyle Tucker hit 370 feet out to right field in the second inning — as the Mariners built a 2-1 lead.
ALDS Game 2:
Astros 4, Mariners 2
Castillo got two quick outs in the sixth inning, and then worked a 2-1 count to the Astros’ No. 2 hitter, Jeremy Pena. With Alvarez waiting on deck, Pena was jammed on a 98 mph fastball in off the plate — and dumped it into shallow center field for a single.
Center field Julio Rodriguez and second baseman Adam Frazier both gave chase on the pop up, but the ball dropped between them. Castillo turned in frustration as the ball dropped and stared blankly out toward center field.
“I mean, it’s something that happens in baseball,” Castillo said through interpreter Freddy Llanos afterward. “It can happen to anybody. I wasn’t frustrated or anything like that.”
With Pena representing the tying run at first, Alvarez stepped in the box.
Castillo hadn’t shied away from pitching to Alvarez in his first two plate appearances.
Alvarez hit a weak ground ball back to Castillo to end the first inning. In the fourth inning, Castillo fell behind 2-0 before getting Alvarez to swing and miss at a changeup low in the zone and then inducing a fly out on a 98 mph fastball at the top of the zone. It was just about the perfect two-pitch sequence.
“That’s the reason we went out and got Castillo (at the trade deadline), to be on a stage like this, going up against one of the best lineups in baseball,” Mariners first baseman Ty France said. “He did a great job. They put one good swing on a ball and put us down.
“We’re here to win baseball games. We got our horse going up against your best. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out how we wanted it to, but I’ll take that matchup any day.”
Clearly, Castillo wasn’t intimidated.
“It’s not just him, it’s against any batter. I always go with that mindset: If you’re good, I’m good too,” Castillo said. “I came with the same plan of just getting him out.”
In the sixth, with Pena on first, Castillo threw a first-pitch sinker that was a good five inches off the outside corner of the plate. Alvarez fouled it off for strike one.
Castillo then threw the same pitch, a 98 mph sinker, in a similar location — not quite as far off the outside edge.
Alvarez hit it 371 feet into the Crawford Box seats in left field to give the Astros a 3-2 lead.
“It was surprising. It was surprising on where the pitch was,” Castillo said. “All merit to him. He was able to contact it and score a home run, put ’em up 3-2. But I think that we did a very good job against him.”
Castillo wound up pitching seven complete innings, allowing three runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and no walks.
If the Mariners manage to win both games back in Seattle this weekend, Castillo would almost certainly get the start on short rest back for Game 5 back in Houston.
“You can’t say enough about the job Luis Castillo continues to do on the biggest stages against some of the best lineups in the league,” manager Scott Servais said. “He was outstanding today.”