SEATTLE — With each failed plate appearance and squandered scoring opportunity, particularly when only one run would’ve stopped the eventual marathon of pitches, outs and scoreless innings, the Mariners were allowing the potent bats of the Astros top hitters, held silent for longer than reasonably expected, opportunity after opportunity to crush their victory hopes and extinguish their World Series dreams.
The moment came more a little over six hours after the first pitch was thrown on Saturday afternoon at T-Mobile Park.
Leading off the 18th inning — no, that’s not a typo, the 18th inning — Jeremy Pena, the Astros' talented rookie shortstop, smashed a 3-2 fastball from Mariners reliever Penn Murfee over the wall in deep left-center The ‘Pen area. The solo homer was the first run produced by either team in what had been a scoreless marathon.
As Pena’s teammates celebrated inside and outside the third base dugout, a sellout crowd of 47,690 that hadn’t stopped yelling or screaming or standing for much of the game was silenced.
The dream of another day of baseball in this magical Mariners season seemed dead even after Murfee and Robbie Ray, yes, Robbie Ray, kept the damage to just that one run.
But after being held scoreless for the first 17 innings mustering only seven hits and striking out 22 times, seemingly hoping to pop a home run from the bottom of the ninth till the end, the Mariners made it 18 without a run with Julio Rodriguez’s flyout to center field.
So much of their season-ending 1-0 loss in Game 3 of the American League Division Series was indicative of their season — the good and bad.
The Mariners got a brilliant starting pitching from George Kirby and exceptional bullpen work from every arm available. But the inability to produce any sort of offense was their final downfall.
The Mariners stood on the rail of their dugout and watched the Astros celebrate a series sweep while the fans tried to offer condolences with “Let’s Go Mariners!” chants. It didn’t heal any pain, knowing they had three winnable games against their bitter rivals and failed to close out of any of them.
This one will sting weeks into the offseason.
Making his first postseason start, unfazed by the raucous crowd filling every inhabitable spot, indifferent to the pressure of keeping his team’s postseason alive and unafraid of the Astros lineup, Kirby, the babe-faced right-hander, delivered the brilliant outing that his team so desperately needed.
Kirby pitched seven shutout innings, allowing six hits with no walks (of course not) and five strikeouts.
His last pitch of the game came with two outs in the seventh inning and runners first and second. Facing the always dangerous Jose Altuve and the crowd on their feet clapping and cheering in anticipation, Kirby reared back and ripped a 98-mph four-seam fastball to home plate.
He wanted the pitch up in the zone. But it was probably at Altuve’s eyes. The diminutive leadoff batter, who hasn’t sniffed a hit in this series, flailed at it unsuccessfully. As the crowd exploded in cheers, Kirby stared down Altuve and screamed in delight.
But the Mariners provided no run support for him. Facing veteran right-hander Lance McCullers, who is postseason tested, the Mariners couldn’t find a way to produce a run or really much of a threat at one.
Throwing his slider more than half the time, which is like kryptonite for Seattle hitters, and rarely throwing his sinking fastball, McCullers tossed six scoreless innings, allowing two hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.
The Mariners put just three balls in play with exit velocities over 95 mph off McCullers, which are considered hard hits. All three were outs.
The Mariners best chance to score off McCullers came when he issued back-to-back walks to Cal Raleigh and Mitch Haniger to start the second inning. But Carlos Santana and Adam Frazier flew out and McCullers struck out Jarred Kelenic to end the inning.
With two outs in the eighth inning, Rodriguez, who had struck out in three at-bats off of McCullers, got to face old teammate Rafael Montero. If you recall, it was Montero at the end of July, who hit Rodriguez in the hand and sent him to the injured list.
In this meeting, Rodriguez injured the baseball, smashing a line drive to left field that hit off the wall, but seemed like it might go through it. The laser was about a foot short of being a home run. Rodriguez hustled into second base for a double. But he stood there and watched as Ty France struck out swinging to end the inning.
Had their moment passed?
It looked like the Astros might get them again in the eighth when Diego Castillo gave up a leadoff single, hit the next batter and allowed a sac bunt to move the two runners into scoring position.
The Mariners called on rookie Matt Brash to clean up the mess. Excitable and sped-up in his previous outing in Houston, Brash struck out Christian Vazquez and then made Altuve look helpless, needing just three pitches for three weak swings to set him down and end the inning and keep the game at 0-0.
