It’s mathematically impossible to win a best-of-five series in Game 1. It’s figuratively possible to lose it, though.
And a quartet of Division Series openers on Tuesday brought a bevy of surprises, heart palpitations and crucial pivot points, for Game 1 certainly and quite possibly for the series at large. Mercifully, the American League will take a day to rest after a Houston Astro made history.
But the defending champions will be fighting for their lives, while the 111-win favorites in the NL will be back at it Wednesday. A look at four things we learned from Tuesday’s Division Series openers:
Astros-Mariners: Down, but never out
It’s been eight years since the Astros began this golden era of baseball and six years of unfettered dominance that’s resulted in five consecutive trips to the AL Championship Series.
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And still, the Astros find ways to make history.
Yordan Alvarez became the first player in playoff history to hit a two-out, walk-off home run with his club trailing by multiple runs, a wallop off Robbie Ray capping an industrious comeback and sending Minute Maid Park into delirium.
Justin Verlander and Alex Bregman said they can’t remember much in the haze of victory, just knowing they had an urge to hug Alvarez. Dusty Baker, the 73-year-old manager who can reference Bill Russell or Stevie Wonder as casually as one might talk to their mailman, called the moment “so close to the top” of the moments he’d experienced in…
