The Mariners flew home from Toronto on Tuesday with a commanding 2-0 series lead, much to the surprise of everyone except themselves. They woke up this morning with that lead cut in half after an unexpected
collapse by George Kirby. The good news: with a win today, a 3-1 series lead puts them in an overwhelmingly strong position to win the ALCS. The bad news: a loss would equalize the series, give home field advantage back to the Blue Jays, and elicit some very normal, not-panicked reactions from the Mariners’ fanbase.
Lineups:
Pitching Matchup:
The good news is that the Mariners do appear to have the pitching edge in tonight’s tilt. Luis Castillo will take the bump for the M’s, and his two appearances against Detroit were excellent. He was pulled from his start after just 4.2 innings and four walks, but he allowed just one hit and zero runs. Of course, he also gave the Mariners 1.1 scoreless innings of relief in last Friday’s 15-inning marathon at which I’m pretty sure I caught COVID. It’s worth noting that Castillo was somewhat shaky in his two starts against Toronto this year. His first saw him give up 10 (!) hits and three runs in 5.0 innings, and his second saw him allow seven hits and five runs in 5.0 innings. Of course, Bo Bichette was available in each of those games and was responsible for two of the hits in each.
The Blue Jays will counter with the 41-year-old Max Scherzer. Scherzer hasn’t pitched in the postseason, or indeed at all since September 24. He’s been a shell of his former self this season, missing over two months with injury and finishing with an ERA of 5.19 and a FIP of 4.99. He’s been primarily hurt by the long ball this season, so that might be the Mariners’ avenue to doing some damage. Despite Scherzer’s struggles, there’s something spooky about facing down a future Hall of Famer with all the playoff experience in the world.
News:
The main piece of news is that Bryce Miller will start tomorrow’s Game 5 for the Mariners. Bryan Woo will apparently be available in the bullpen, though the fact that he is not starting perhaps suggests that the Mariners would prefer not to use him if at all possible.
Otherwise, Anthony Santander is reportedly dealing with back issues, and the Blue Jays are replacing him with Joey Loperfido.
Game Information:
Game time: 5:33 PT
Radio: Seattle Sports (710 AM) and ESPN Seattle
TV: FOX (Channel 13 in Seattle). We’ll continue to have Joe Davis and John Smoltz on the call, with Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci as field reporters.
Today in Mariners History:
Once again, the Mariners have never played a game on October 16. Last time they played on a date for the first time (Game 1 of this series), it went very well.
