Yordan Alvarez's walk-off homer gives Astros comeback ALDS Game 1 win vs. Mariners

HOUSTON  — Yordan Alvarez wrecked all of Seattle’s carefully crafted strategy with one colossal swing.

The Mariners came to the postseason with a plan. Down to their last out, the October-tested Houston Astros weren’t so easily outmatched.

Alvarez smashed a game-ending, three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning off Robbie Ray, foiling the Mariners’ move to use a Cy Young Award winner in a rare relief role and vaulting the Astros to an 8-7 win Tuesday in their playoff opener.

“It was something going into the series where we were at, looking at our rotation, where we were going to head, and talking with Robbie about using him out of the bullpen as a bullet, so to speak, for that type of scenario,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “You know, bringing in a lefty against Alvarez, although Alvarez is one of the better hitters in the league.”

Houston skipper Dusty Baker, who managed Servais while with the Giants, refused to second-guess his former player.

“If he gets him out, then it looks great . . . Next time Robbie Ray could win, but today we won,” Baker said.

Trailing all game after a poor start by Justin Verlander, the AL West champion Astros overtook rookie star Julio Rodriguez and the wild-card Mariners at the end to begin their Division Series.

The Astros had been 0-48 in their postseason history when trailing by more than a run after eight innings until Alvarez homered deep into the seats to overcome a 7-5 deficit.

“I think it’s one of the most special moments that I’ve had in my career,” Alvarez, who also hit a two-run double in the third inning, said through a translator.

The no-doubt drive was the first walk-off homer in postseason history with a team trailing by multiple runs. And it was just the second walk-off homer with a team down to its final out — the other was Kirk Gibson’s startling shot that lifted the Dodgers over the A’s in the 1988 World Series opener.

A stoic Ray said he was “just frustrated” after giving up the mammoth home run.

Alvarez had a .998 OPS against lefthanded pitchers this season, by far the highest among qualified lefthanded hitters, and 10 of his 37 home runs. And his batting average against lefties was .321, compared to .299 vs righties.

The Mariners, back in the playoffs this year for the first time since 2001, were on the wrong end of a big comeback this time after rallying from a seven-run deficit in Game 2 to sweep their series with Toronto.

The Mariners jumped on Verlander for six runs in just four innings to build a 6-2 lead early.

Yuli Gurriel hit a solo homer in the Houston fourth before Eugenio Suarez’s solo shot in the seventh extended Seattle’s lead to 7-3.

A two-run homer by Alex Bregman off Andres Munoz cut the lead to 7-5 in the eighth.

Reliever injured

Astros reliever Phil Maton revealed that he broke his right pinkie when he punched a locker in frustration after Houston's regular-season finale and will miss the postseason. Maton had surgery Monday to repair the fractured finger on his pitching hand.

The Astros also announced that Maton and another veteran reliever, Will Smith, had been left off the roster for the AL Division Series against Seattle.