Coming into today’s Game 3 of the American League Division Series against the Astros, the Mariners were down 0-2 and needed a win to keep their season alive so they could play on for at least one more game. In a way, they did end up playing another game, although not in the way they probably wanted.
The Astros and Mariners tie the record for longest MLB playoff game ever
It took 18 innings for one of Houston or Seattle to score a single run.
Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images
In their first home playoff game since 2001, the Mariners battled the Astros for 18 innings, tying the MLB record for the longest playoff game in history. Even beyond that, the two teams managed just one run between them. Said run belonged to Houston, as an 18th inning Jeremy Peña home run finally broke the deadlock and ended up being enough for a 1-0 win.
With the victory, Houston advances to the American League Championship Series, and Seattle’s season comes to an end.
Before that happened, the two teams put on a display of offensive ineptitude or pitching excellence, depending on your opinion. The Astros scored their one run on just 11 hits, while the Mariners couldn’t score despite eight hits of their own. The teams combined to go 0-for-19 with runners in scoring position and left a combined 24 runners on base. There were weird double plays, 17 total pitchers used, and lots of nonsense in general.
For Houston, some notable performance belonged to José Altuve who went 0-for-8, Yordan Alvarez, who went 0-for-7, and Christian Vázquez, who went 0-for-5, despite not even coming into the game until the seventh inning. For Seattle, there weren’t quite as many notable o-fers, but both Adam Frazier and Jared Kelenic went 0-for-7, with Frazier in particular leaving six runners on base.
The Astros are now off to the ALCS, where they’ll play the winner of the New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians, who will play Game 4 of their series on Sunday. For the Mariners, it’s a disappointing end to an otherwise good season, that saw them return to the playoffs for the first time since 2011. It probably won’t be of any solace to them, but at least they went out by playing one of the funniest games possible.
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