Houston Astros: 3 Takeaways From Game 1 of the ALDS

There are three big takeaways from the dramatic game one win the Astros had over the Seattle Mariners.

The Houston Astros won a wild Game 1  in the American League Division Series coming back from down 7-3 in the eighth inning with a walk-off win over the Seattle Mariners.

The Mariners got into the American League Division Series by erasing a giant deficit of their own in game two of the Wild Card Series against the Toronto Blue Jays and it seemed they were riding high off of that win still.

Seattle rocked presumptive Cy Young winner and future hall of famer Justin Verlander for six runs in four innings off ten hits. It was the worst playoff start in Justin Verlander’s career. The Mariners had a game plan against him and it was working, burying the Astros in an early 4-0 hole.

The Astros kept fighting but every time they scored the Mariners matched it keeping the margin at four runs consistently throughout the game.  With Luis Castillo looming as the game two starter this was as close to a must win without being a must win as playoff games get.

Castillo threw 7.1 innings of shut out baseball against a very good Blue Jays offense and as great as Framber Valdez has been this year his postseason last year outside of one start in Fenway Park was quite miserable.

Suffice to say if the Astros lost this game they faced a distinct possibility of going back to Seattle trailing 2-0 in a best of five series and facing a rabid fan base that hasn’t had playoff baseball in 20 years.

All that has been turned on its head as the Astros now hold a 1-0 series lead which is pretty critical to winning a best of five series. In postseason history the team that wins the first game wins the series 71 percent of the time.

Not that percentages matter as the Astros had a nine percent chance of winning the game going into Yordan Alvarez’s final at bat yesterday.  Speaking of whom…