Yordan Alvarez just ripped the Mariners’ hearts out again

In Tuesday’s Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, the Astros’ Yordan Alvarez broke the Mariners’ hearts with his ninth inning walk-off home run after Seattle had led for the whole game.

Flash forward to Game 2, and Seattle had seemed to shake off the crushing defeat. While Houston had taken an early lad, the Mariners scored two runs in the fourth inning to go in front, and had their ace Luis Castillo putting in an excellent effort on the mound.

Then in the sixth with the Mariners just an out away from getting out of the inning, Alvarez came to the plate with a runner one and the Astros down just a single run, and well...

For the second time in as many games, the Houston slugger had ripped the Mariners’ hearts out. While unlike in Game 1, this home run wasn’t a walk-off, it did seem to be pretty devastating, especially considering how good Castillo had been.

Seattle did still have three innings to try and come back. They did put a couple runners on, and even came within a couple feet of a go-ahead home run of their own in the eighth. However, nothing ended up coming of their rally attempts and the Astros added another run and finished off a 4-2 win.

That’s twice now that the Mariners have been a handful of outs away from a crucial road win only to lose in a crushing manner. In Game 1, they did so thanks to a great game from thier offense, crushing Astros’ ace Justin Verlander and giving him his worst start of the year. In Game 2, they got a great pitching game from Castillo. Both ended up in losses and now they’re going to have to beat the Astros three straight times to advance.

If Alvarez comes up in a crucial spot again in Game 3, the Mariners might want to do something different.