HOUSTON -- Can the Astros close out this American League Division Series and advance to play for the pennant for the sixth straight year?
Follow [@brianmctaggart](http://twitter.com/brianmctaggart) on Twitter. [with two go-ahead homers](https://www.mlb.com/news/astros-win-game-2-2022-alds) and seven RBIs in the first two games of the ALDS. Follow him on Twitter at [@DKramer_](http://twitter.com/DKramer_). The others: Troy Glaus (2002) and Ken Griffey Jr. [will make his first postseason start](https://www.mlb.com/news/george-kirby-starting-game-3-of-alds-for-mariners). Mariners: Julio Rodríguez went 1-for-5 in Game 2, but his hit was a 115.8 mph double, the hardest-hit ball of the game. Astros manager Dusty Baker has yet to use his best reliever -- Ryne Stanek -- in either of the first two games. He ranks second in club history in postseason innings pitched (57 1/3), trailing only Justin Verlander (93 1/3). (4-2, 2.27 in the regular season) was limited to eight starts due to a right flexor tendon injury, but he racked up 50 strikeouts and posted a .215 opponent average upon his return. Kirby’s 7.79 K/BB ratio through his first 20 starts is the highest in AL/NL history, excluding openers. The right-hander made his playoff debut in Game 2 of the AL Wild Card Series, earning the save in his first Major League relief appearance. The standings in this best-of-five round show complete Houston dominance, but this back-and-forth has been much closer than it looks.
The Houston Astros are heading back to the ALCS. Saturday evening the Astros outlasted the Seattle Mariners to complete the sweep in the best-of-three ALDS ...
The Mariners are going home and the Astros are going back to the ALCS. Eight days ago the Guardians and Rays were scoreless through 14 innings and, at the time, it was the longest scoreless game in postseason history. Houston will face the winner of the Guardians vs. So, in the first 121 MLB season, never had two teams failed to score through 14 innings in a postseason game. It was also the first postseason game to be scoreless through at least 15 innings. The Mariners wunderkind temporarily saved his team's season with a tremendous diving catch with two on and one out in the 16th inning when Yuli Gurriel lined a ball into the right-center field gap and Rodríguez ran it down. The game remained scoreless until the 18th inning, when ... The game was scoreless until Jeremy Peña provided the game-winning and series-clinching solo home run in the 18th inning. Houston advances to their sixth straight ALCS and the Mariners are heading home for the offseason. Kirby fanned Altuve on a fastball way up and out of the zone. [Hernández told the Seattle Times about throwing out the first pitch](https://twitter.com/RyanDivish/status/1581376812818448384), adding he told the Mariners wouldn't commit to it until after they clinched a postseason berth. The Houston Astros are heading back to the ALCS.
SEATTLE — This was baseball in the future perfect tense: Julio Rodríguez, the youngest and the best player on the Seattle Mariners, coming to the plate to ...
“They’re the best team in our league,” Dipoto said of the Astros. The players, Dipoto said, went as far as they could against a rival that sets the standard. “And we’ll remember that in the middle of June, when things were not looking good, we still ended up here.” I just wanted to give a little bit of my heart to them, because they really deserve it.” We got Yordan’d the first two days, and we got shadowed and their pitchers did a great job tonight. The Mariners did win a two-game playoff series in Toronto, but earned just one game at home. It was the first postseason game ever to be scoreless through 17 innings, and the Mariners had set a franchise record for strikeouts in a game, with 22. One game before, in Houston, Rodríguez had come to bat in the same situation — one out to spare — and ripped a double. In some ways they came close to an upset in this division series — as San Diego and Philadelphia pulled off in the National League — but two Alvarez homers made the difference in Houston, and the Astros’ pitchers took over in Seattle. “And you could tell on their faces that they were a little bit shocked that we were ready to play against them. “I feel like this is just the beginning for all of us,” said Rodríguez, 21, who held his bat all the way into the bench after the final out. The afternoon shadows did not help, and neither did the fans holding shoes on their heads for good luck (yes, it’s a thing here).