Mariners land early blows before KO 9th in 'heavyweight fight'

HOUSTON -- Twice now, the Mariners have thrown the first punch in Game 1 against an elite starting pitcher, this time jumping on Justin Verlander with an early outburst to open the ALDS on Friday night in Houston. It looked like it was enough.

That’s until Yordan Alvarez’s stunning three-run shot against Robbie Ray, who was moonlighting as a closer, walked off Seattle, 8-7. It was a gut punch for the Mariners, whose offense shot them out of a cannon in the early innings with a 4-0 lead after two. They couldn’t have scripted it better.

That’s the same approach the Mariners will need to carry into Game 2 on Thursday, with the benefit of an off-day between to dull the sting of this Game 1 heartbreak. It won't get much easier with Framber Valdez starting for the Astros, and that’s why this effort is so frustrating to waste.

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“We got on Verlander early in the game and did exactly what we needed to do there,” said manager Scott Servais. “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.”

From here, it’s about maintaining the early approach that allowed Seattle to score six runs in the first four innings. That’s their ticket back into this series because if there’s an early lead to work with again, Seattle has complete confidence in Game 2 starter Luis Castillo after his dominance in the Wild Card round. The bullpen has long been a strength, too, and wants another shot to carry that lead through a full nine.

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"The only way to get through this is to flush it, so we will do the best we can down in the bullpen to flush it, and I hope the position players don't flush anything and continue to score seven runs,” said reliever Paul Sewald, who couldn’t close the door in the ninth. “I think if we score seven runs every game, we've got a pretty good chance of doing pretty well."

What both managers agree on is that the Mariners’ big opportunity was the early innings. Houston last played on Oct. 5, the club's 106-win season earning it a rest while the Wild Card rounds played out. The debate of whether “too much rest” can hurt depends on the player, but Astros manager Dusty Baker saw its impact clearly, including with Verlander.

“Maybe he was a little rusty,” Baker said. “He was barely missing on a number of pitches. I think those days off hurt our whole team. You see, we didn't wake up until the fifth, sixth inning, and this is a game of repetition and a game of game action. You can practice all you want to. There's nothing, no substitute for game action. So that's not an excuse, but I can sort of feel it and see it.”

When Verlander missed early, Seattle pounced. Julio Rodríguez  worked a leadoff walk, just the second Verlander has allowed in 2022, and quickly scored on a Ty France single. Rodríguez later doubled on a 113.3 mph rocket to the opposite field and tripled, shoveling momentum in Seattle’s favor each time he picked up a bat. Along with Eugenio Suárez, the top three hitters combined for seven hits and drove in five runs.

In this heavyweight fight that Servais sees, the Mariners need to come out swinging again. Tuesday’s crushing loss will do nothing for fans’ confidence in the bullpen, but there’s nothing normal about what happened in that ninth inning. Handing Castillo and the bullpen a lead is still the way back, and that starts by getting an early jump on another great starter in Valdez.

“We were very aggressive, first of all,” Servais said. “Oftentimes, starting pitchers that have that kind of track record are most vulnerable in the first or second inning before they settle in because once he gets settled in, he can just roll right through you. We were being aggressive early on.”

In the history of best-of-five postseason series, Game 1 winners have gone on to win the series 102 of 144 times (71%). In Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format, teams winning Game 1 at their home ballparks have advanced 34 of 47 times (72%).

It’s an uphill climb from here for the Mariners, but before it all came crashing down, they left themselves a blueprint that can’t be forgotten when the dust settles from Game 1.