Astros Save Seahawks From Awkward Kickoff Time By Beating Mariners In Epic 18-Inning Duel

Saturday night's ALDS game between the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros made all kinds of history. It also played a direct role in the start time of Sunday's Seahawks game.

As for the game itself, a "pitcher's duel" would be an understatement. Just one run was scored in the 18-inning game, which was really as long as two full games.

After 17 full innings without a run, the Astros finally put a "one" on the board in the 18th when Jeremey Peña took Penn Murfee WAY deep to left centerfield for a solo home run.

From there, Houston closed out Seattle on three-straight outs in the bottom of the 18th and completed the ALDS sweep.

Because the single run was scored after the 15th inning, it marked the first time in MLB playoff history that a game went scoreless into the 16th. It was also the second game this postseason that went into the 15th tied 0-0 after the Guardians and Rays did so in the AL Wild Card game.

With the Astros winning the game on Saturday and ending the series, the Seahawks will kickoff as planned on Sunday.

Earlier this week, FOX announced that if the Mariners won on Saturday, the Seahawks' game against the Cardinals — which is also in Washington — would be delayed. The NFL rarely, if ever, moves its games for other sports or events, so it was an extremely unprecedented decision.

Entering the weekend, the Seahawks were scheduled to play a home game against the Cardinals at 4:05pm ET. If the Mariners won, they were scheduled to play a home game at 3:07pm ET.

That, obviously, would have created a significant conflict for fans of both Seattle teams. They would have had to chose between watching their baseball team that just snapped a lengthy postseason drought, or their football team in a regular season game. The latter likely would get precedent.

In turn, FOX was set to push Sunday's Seahawks game back by more than an hour to 5:30pm ET if the games were going to overlap. Again, the NFL does not bend the knee to anyone in terms of its scheduling. Football is king and it is played when it is played.

That made the league's decision to potentially bump the game back rather strange. But in the end, it doesn't matter. The Astros won and the Seahawks will play at 4:05pm ET as planned.