Peña on home run in record 18-inning game: 'It’ll be a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life'

It took the equivalent of two full baseball games for Game 3 of the American League Division Series (ALDS) between the Houston Astros and the Seattle Mariners to be decided on Saturday with the Astros outlasting their hosts for a sixth consecutive American League Championship Series (ALCS) berth.

Houston’s Jeremy Peña sent a home run (HR) to center field in the 18th inning – about six hours after the contest’s first pitch – to help the top-seeded Astros edge the Mariners 1-0 and finish the best-of-three series with a sweep. 

“It’ll be a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” the rookie shortstop said in a report on the team’s website.

Astros right-handed starter Lance McCullers Jr. translated his first postseason start since Game 4 of last year’s ALDS into a six-inning shutout that was aided by a dozen scoreless frames from Héctor Neris, Rafael Montero, Ryan Pressly, Bryan Abreu, Ryne Stanek, Hunter Brown and Luis Garcia, per the franchise.

“It's hard to hold somebody scoreless for that long on both sides,” third-year Houston skipper Dusty Baker said in the report. “This is some team. These guys, they grind and grind and grind and sooner or later we broke through."

An ESPN report that was ran by Houston ABC affiliate KTRK said that Garcia recorded five scoreless innings that included six strikeouts and no walks to earn the win.

The Astros pitching staff shone on a day when both teams’ offenses struggled to succeed with runners in scoring position (RISP) until the 25-year-old Peña’s tiebreaking blast.

Houston’s normally prolific bats squeezed out a mere 11 hits in 63 appearances at the plate, according to ESPN.

Clocking in at six hours and 22 minutes, the contest undoubtedly took its place among the longest in Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason history, as did its 18 innings, ESPN reported.

For the Astros, it was somewhat déjà vu. The go-ahead HR drew comparisons to the final moments of Game 4 of the 2005 National League Division Series (NLDS) when outfielder Chris Burke’s game-winning and series-clinching solo shot lifted Houston over the Atlanta Braves.

That game also went 18 innings, but Saturday’s triumph exceeded it by 22 minutes.

As of press time, the Astros are keeping tabs on the ALDS series between the New York Yankees and the Cleveland Guardians.

The Yankees on Sunday staved off elimination to force Game 5 on Monday, of whom the winner goes on to face the Astros for the pennant.