In Game 2 of the American League Division Series on Thursday, the Houston Astros defeated the Seattle Mariners 4-2. The best-of-five series is now 2-0 in favour of Houston.
The Mariners started out strong, but things fell downhill fast.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Houston's Yordan Alvarez, the Astros hero in game 1, smashed a two-run, go-ahead homer to change the score to 3-2 in favour of the Astros.
Alvarez is one of the top left-handed batters in the world, if not the best, at just 25 years old. What he has done in the first two games of the series is unprecedented in baseball's playoff history.
In the ninth inning of game 1, Alvarez hit a three-run walk-off home run to help the Astros come from behind.
During game 2, the Astros were once again down 2-1 when Alvarez hit Castillo's fastball into the short porch in left field of Minute Maid Park, making the crowd go crazy! This puts the Astros just 1 win away from reaching their sixth straight AL Championship Series.
No other player has ever hit more than 1 game-winning homer in the sixth or later innings of a postseason game, Alvarez was able to achieve this in just 2 games.
HE'S A BAD, BAD MAN. pic.twitter.com/zA0se6sQn0
— Houston Astros (@astros) October 13, 2022
Jeff Bagwell is the franchise leader in home runs with a career total of 449 long balls. In contrast, other playoff statistics aren't even close to Alvarez's four postseason home runs, which have already doubled Bagwell's total. Bagwell played in 33 postseason games, batting .226 with a .685 OPS. Alvarez, the MVP of the ALCS last year, is batting .291 with a .891 OPS in 35 postseason games.
I just try to disconnect from everything when I go up there to the plate....I just kind of try to go in there with a plan of attack and just go out there, try to visualize everything that might happen there and ... yeah
Yordan Alvarez
For the second straight game, the Mariners were confident in their position, Luis Castillo outperformed Astros starter Framber Valdez, who gave up two runs in the fourth inning on a fielding error and an RBI single by Dylan Moore.
For the first time in 20 years, Seattle entered the postseason and hoped to return to T-Mobile Park for Game 3 on Saturday with a split of the series.
But, of course, Alvarez arrived in the sixth, ruining their chances. With two outs, Jeremy Pena hit his second hit of the day while batting in the No. 2 spot. Alvarez was initiated by Castillo using a fast sinker, which he fouled out but another was thrown and this one was not missed.
He caught a line fly from Eugenio Suarez in left field in the eighth inning with two runners on base.
Mariners manager Scott Servais appeared to have learned his lesson when Alvarez walked up to the plate once more in the eighth inning. Even though reliever Andrés Muoz had already walked Pena, he stuck up four fingers to indicate an intentional walk, his 10th of the year.
Alex Bregman then singled into right field on the following pitch to bring Pena in, the game ended in a 4-1 lead to the Houston Astros.
The Astros currently hold a 2-0 lead and are just 1 game off from winning, can Alvarez and his team do it again?
Credit: F. Carter Smith
