Jeremy Peña and the Houston Astros just kept going. Scoreless inning after scoreless inning, as day turned into night in front of a frenzied crowd in Seattle.
They eventually found a way. That’s how the Astros reached the AL Championship Series for the sixth straight year.
It’s just what they do.
Peña homered in the 18th inning, and the Astros beat the Mariners 1-0 on Saturday for a three-game sweep of their AL Division Series.
“These guys, they know not to panic,” Houston manager Dusty Baker said. “They don’t get too excited. They don’t get too down. It means a lot.”
Peña drove a slider from Penn Murfee deep to left-center for the rookie’s first playoff homer, providing the only run in an afternoon full of dominant pitching and empty trips to the plate.
The 18 innings matched the longest game in playoff history and the 6 hours, 22 minutes was the third-longest in time.