The Mariners will play in their first ever Game 7.
The Mariners lost 6-2 on Sunday in a sloppy, bad ALCS Game 6. A shaky outing from Logan Gilbert and poor defense behind him allowed the Blue Jays to get
out to an early lead. The lineup struggled to get much going at the plate and ended three consecutive innings with a double play. Game 7 is Monday in Toronto. The winner goes to the World Series.
Gilbert didn’t have his best night, giving up seven hits — including two homers — in just four innings. His velocity and command were all over the place. The Blue Jays made a lot of hard contact and never looked fooled. But it was a series of miscues in the field that got Toronto their first runs.
Daulton Varsho laced a liner into the gap to leadoff the second. Julio ranged over to cut it off and might have kept Varsho at first, but it bounced in-and-out of his glove, allowing Varsho to get to second. The play was ruled a single and an error. Ernie Clement followed with a one-hopper to Eugenio Suárez at third, who bobbled it for another error. A hard single to right field plated the game’s first run, and a weak chopper to third, again mishandled (though not an error), plated the second. Geno helped limit the damage with a diving play on a 116 mph rocket from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to leave the bases loaded.
Gilbert got two quick outs in the third and looked to have settled in. But he left a first-pitch fastball over the heart of the plate and Clement hit a triple off the top of the wall in left. Addison Barger followed with a homer on a hanging slider to make it 4-0.
Guerrero ended Gilbert’s night with a leadoff homer in the fifth to make it 5-0, again on a pitch left over the middle. It was Guerrero’s sixth homer of the postseason.
The miscues didn’t end with Gilbert gone. In the seventh, with runners on first and second, Cal Raleigh blocked a ball in the dirt, chased after it, and fired towards third trying to nab the advancing Guerrero. The throw wound up in left field, and Guerrero scampered home. Guerrero, who was upset after reaching on a hit by pitch, was fired up.
The run didn’t matter much.
The Mariners offense couldn’t figure it out against Trey Yesavage, who they’d chased early in Game 2. Yesavage pounded the zone with splitter after splitter after splitter, and the Mariners were unable to layoff or make contact. They struck out 13 times in the game, including seven times against Yesavage, to go with just five hits and four walks.
They did find themselves with a few chances. J.P. Crawford leadoff the third with a walk. Leo Rivas nearly poked one out on a ball that hit off the top of the wall in right field. But Crawford couldn’t (or didn’t) advance while waiting to see if the ball would be caught, limiting Rivas to a long single. Julio Rodríguez followed with a walk to load the bases. Cal then swung at a first-pitch, middle-middle splitter and roped a one-hopper to Guerrero at first, who turned a double play.
The Mariners loaded the bases again in the fourth with one out. This time Crawford hit into an inning-ending double play. In the fifth, a single by Dominic Canzone was erased by Julio with a third consecutive inning-ending double play. It was the first time a team has hit into three consecutive inning-ending double plays in the postseason since 1953.
The Mariners finally got to Yesavage in the sixth. He hung a first-pitch splitter about as middle-middle as can be, and Josh Naylor crushed it out to right for a solo homer, pimping it with a slick, no-look bat flip. Randy Arozarena followed with a single and Yesavage was pulled. Arozarena came around to score score Arozarena all the way from first on a weak-flare single to right field from Suárez.
The lineup was quiet the rest of the evening.
Do! Or die…
I don’t really know what to say, about the game or series.
It was a bad game. They pitched poorly, fielded poorly and ran the bases, eh, poorly once and well once. That’s not abnormal for this team, who finished in the bottom half of the league (or worse) in all three categories. Their strength is out-homering these issues; they lost on Sunday because they didn’t hit enough homers. This was the 11th game of the postseason and 173rd game of the year. There’s not much left to say about this dynamic.
You already know the stakes. Game 7 is Monday. It will be the first Game 7 in the history of the franchise. If they win, they go to their first World Series. If they lose, they go home, again. It’s do-or-die time for the ultimate do-or-die team. As I’ve said in the past, that the Mariners lack consistency might be the best thing going for them at the moment.
George Kirby will pitch for the Mariners. Shane Bieber will pitch for the Blue Jays. Just about every pitcher on either roster will be available behind them.
The keys to the game? Win the game.
It was never going to be easy. It was never going to be all that fun. Again and again we’ve seen this team back themselves in a corner and kick themselves in the face.
They’re still playing.
