Astros-Mariners ALDS: Three takeaways from Game 2, as Yordan Alvarez makes history again

Yordan Alvarez might be putting together one of the great postseason performances we’ve seen again.

Then again, he may never get another good pitch to hit.

For the second time in as many games, an Alvarez home run singlehandedly flipped the fortunes of the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners in the American League Division Series, as he hit an opposite-field, two-run homer off Mariners ace Luis Castillo to erase a one-run, sixth inning deficit. The Astros never trailed again and moved within a game of their sixth consecutive American League Championship Series appearance with a 4-2 Game 2 victory over the Mariners.

Alvarez became the first player in major league history to hit a walk-off playoff home run and follow it up with a go-ahead homer in consecutive games.

A look at three takeaways from Thursday’s Game 2:

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Your Don, Alvarez

It was one thing for Alvarez to spank a two-out, three-run, walk-off homer to steal Game 1 from Seattle. That blast came off Mariners lefty Robbie Ray, who was making an ill-advised relief appearance and grooved a center-cut pitch to the Astros slugger.

Thursday was something else entirely.

Castillo was cruising, having allowed just five balls out of the infield and nursing a 2-1 lead in the sixth, the lone blemish a Kyle Tucker solo home run.

But rookie Jeremy Peña notched his second stage-setting hit in as many games, matching his ninth-inning single from Game 1 that preceded Alvarez’s walk-off. This time, it broke a string of 13 consecutive Astros Castillo retired, dating to Tucker’s third-inning homer.

That brought up Alvarez, and Castillo pitched him appropriately, starting him with a 98-mph sinker off the plate that Alvarez fouled off. He threw him virtually the same pitch, a good two inches off the plate.

This time, Alvarez did not miss.

Whereas his Game 1 winner was a missile he yanked to right field, this time he stayed on the ball and spanked it to left field, knowing the short porch in left beckoned. The ball settled easily into the Crawford Boxes.

"I call him Grandé," Astros manager Dusty Baker said of Alvarez, "because he always comes up big."

Lead gone. Series nearly gone. Next time up, Mariners manager Scott Servais intentionally walked Alvarez, even with first base occupied.

Two at-bats too late.

Seattle, sunk?

Imagine waiting 21 years for a playoff berth and only playing one game at home.

Well, that’s the reality facing the Mariners after they had to win a best-of-three series at Toronto, then head to Houston for Games 1 and 2 of this ALDS.

Now, their hopes hinge on rookie right-hander George Kirby, fighting a 2-0 deficit and wondering if Castillo can possibly come back from a 104-pitch outing and start Game 5 on three days’ rest. The flight from Houston to Seattle will give them time to ponder the magnitude of their task.

Like Kirby prevailing in a win-or-go-home game.

And trying to topple future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander, who they rocked in Game 1 but let off the hook with Alvarez’s blast, in Game 4.

And then figuring out who might start and win a Game 5 back in Houston.

The offense that was so potent against Verlander and in eliminating the Blue Jays made Houston starter Framber Valdez work, but they only managed four hits in Game 2. Their peerless reliever, Andrés Muñoz, got got yet again by Alex Bregman, yielding an RBI single in the eighth inning after giving up a two-run homer to him in Game 1.

What worked before is misfiring against Houston. And they’re almost out of time.

Jeremy Peña: Playoff ready

None of this is possible without Peña’s two-out single in Game 1. Thursday, he had two hits and scored twice, including a daring dash home on Bregman’s hard-hit RBI single. Oh, and he’s been playing a near-flawless shortstop, continuing to fill the massive void left by the departure of Carlos Correa last winter.

“When you get to this point,” Baker said, “you can either be a wide-eyed rookie or you can be sometimes a wide-eyed veteran that doesn't do any more than a rookie does.”

Peña has been anything but wide-eyed, a great omen for this Astros playoff run.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Astros-Mariners ALDS: Three takeaways from Game 2