Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Astros win in 18 innings, advance
SEATTLE — Rookie Jeremy Pena homered in the 18th inning, and Houston beat Seattle 1-0 on Saturday to advance to the American League Championship Series for the sixth straight year.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Pena drove a slider from Penn Murfee deep to left-center for the shortstop’s first playoff homer, proving the lone run in a day full of dominant pitching and empty trips to the plate. The 18 innings matched the longest game in postseason history.
Spoiling the Mariners’ first home playoff appearance since 2001, the Astros capped a three-game sweep of the teams’ ALDS. Next up is the New York Yankees or Cleveland in Game 1 of the ALCS on Wednesday.
As Game 3 made its way into its sixth hour, Pena delivered another painful blow to Seattle that ended its short return to the postseason.
After 21 years, Mariners fans welcomed playoff baseball back to T-mobile Park. They got their money’s worth and then some.
Three previous playoff games reached the 18th inning before conclusion, one involving Houston. The Astros beat Atlanta 7-6 in 18 innings in Game 4 of the 2005 NLDS on Chris Burke’s walk-off homer.
Game 2 of the 2014 NLDS between San Francisco and Washington and Game 3 of the 2018 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston also went 18 innings.
But those games had runs. This one failed to produce anything until Pena’s swing on a 3-and-2 pitch.
Seattle’s best scoring chance was rookie Julio Rodriguez’s line drive that thudded off the wall in the eighth inning. The Mariners had runners in scoring position in the 13th and 17th but didn’t get a key two-out hit against Houston’s superb bullpen.
■ Guardians 6, Yankees 5: At Cleveland, rookie Oscar Gonzalez hit a walk-off two-run single with two outs in the ninth, capping Cleveland’s three-run inning, as the Guardians took a 2-1 ALDS lead.
Gonzalez, a hero earlier in the postseason as well, lined a 1-and-2 pitch from Clarke Schmidt through the middle to score rookie Steven Kwan and Amed Rosario as Cleveland pushed New York to the brink of elimination.
Aaron Judge and rookie Oswaldo Cabrera each hit a two-run homer, and Harrison Bader added a solo shot for the Yankees, who carried a 5-3 lead into the ninth.
Game 4 is Sunday, when New York turns to ace Gerrit Cole to prevent an early postseason exit. The Yankees had been 167-0 in the postseason when entering the ninth inning with a multiple-run lead.
With one out in the ninth, Myles Straw blooped a hit off Wandy Peralta and scampered to second when the ball got by left fielder Oswaldo Cabrera, who missed it with a dive. Kwan then dropped a base hit into left, and Yankees manager Aaron Boone brought in Schmidt.
Rosario followed with an RBI single to make it 5-4 before Jose Ramirez fisted a ball to the open left side that shortstop Isiah Kiner-falefa stopped with a slide, preventing the tying run from scoring.
Schmidt then struck out Josh Naylor on three pitches before Gonzalez had his second monumental moment of this October.
As Rosario crossed the plate, Gonzalez flung his helmet high in the air standing near first base as his teammates rushed onto the field to mob him. The 24-year-old hit a walk-off homer in the 15th inning last week to cap a sweep of Tampa Bay in the wild-card round.