On April 6, 1977, Diego Seguí threw out the first pitch in Mariners history. He walked the Jerry Remy, and the Angels eventually shut out Seattle 7-0. They shut them out the next day too. That year, the Mariners would go 64-98, and the New York Yankees became the American League Champions.
On April 11, 1984, Alvin Davis made his Major League debut, hitting a three-run home run in a 5-4 victory over the Red Sox. It was a sign of things to come for Davis, who became the Mariners’ first star, making
the All-Star team as a rookie and winning the AL Rookie of the Year, the first time a Mariner won one of the major awards. Davis would go on to earn the nickname Mr. Mariner, playing eight seasons with the club. But he never topped his rookie year’s 6.0 WAR; the future seemed more promising than it was when we walked onto the Kingdome’s turf that April day in 1984, and the team finished 74-88 that year. The Detroit Tigers became the American League Champions.
On June 2, 1987, the Mariners used the first overall pick in the draft to select Ken Griffey, Jr. (though they almost didn’t). Griffey would go on to become baseball’s biggest crossover star of the past half century, drawing a national audience to tune into Mariners games to watch his electric defense and prodigious power. He ushered in the first Golden Era of Mariners baseball, eventually hitting 56 home runs in back to back seasons and becoming the first Mariner to win an MVP award. But it would have to wait. In 1987, the Mariners finished 78-84, and the Minnesota Twins became the American League Champions.
On October 8, 1995, Edgar Martinez came up with the greatest hit in Mariners history. It was so big, we call it simply “the Double” complete with the capital D. Edgar played his entire Hall of Fame career with Seattle, and redefined the designated hitter to the point that they named the award after him. On that fall day under the Kingdome roof, he shot a laser to left-center, bringing in Joey Cora to tie the game and Junior to score from first, the winning run that sealed Game 5 of the ALDS in the 11th inning. It probably saved baseball in Seattle. But the Mariners only won two games in the ALCS, and Cleveland became the American League Champions.
On September 30, 2000, Álex Rodríguez hit two home runs and batted in seven in the capstone to the greatest season of his career. At just 24 years old, he’d already recorded 189 home runs and nearly 1,000 hits, all with Seattle, while playing Gold Glove-caliber defense at shortstop. He led the team to a Wild Card berth and to winning two games in the ALCS, but the ride stopped there and A-Rod left town. The New York Yankees became the American League Champions.
On May 9, 2001, Ichiro Suzuki stole three bases in a 10-5 win over the Red Sox. He stole 53 others that year to go along with his 242 base hits and instant-icon status. He became the new face of the franchise that he’d lead over the following decade in which he won a Gold Glove every year and set the new record for most hits in a single season. He led that 2001 team to 116 wins, the most in MLB history. The New York Yankees became the American League Champions.
On August 15, 2012, Félix Hernández pitched a perfect game, which Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein convincingly demonstrate might be the most dominant game ever pitched. It was only the best of the King’s 419 games with Seattle, famously none of which came in the postseason, despite striking out 2,524 batters with a 3.42 career ERA. That perfect game hardly mattered in the standings as the Mariners went 75-87, right in the middle of a 21-year postseason drought that was the longest in the Big 4 American sports by the time it ended. The Detroit Tigers became the American League Champions.
On September 30, 2022, Cal Raleigh hit a pinch-hit home run in a 3-2 count with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. It sent Seattle to the playoffs for the first time in more than two decades. With Julio Rodríguez leading the charge, backed up by J.P. Crawford and Eugenio Suárez along with rock-solid pitching by Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Matt Brash, and Andrés Muñoz, that team stunned the Blue Jays in the Wild Card round to advance to the ALDS. It seemed like baseball was back in the Pacific Northwest. But the Houston Astros became the American League Champions.
Tonight, the Seattle Mariners entered the bottom of the eighth inning trailing the Blue Jays 2-1 with the ALCS tied at 2-2. After scraping together back-to-back wins in Toronto, the bats went quiet as the series came to Seattle.
The pitching had done its part to keep the Jays to just a pair of runs. Bryce Miller went four-plus innings of heroic work as he continued to fight the bone spur that’s sidelined him multiple times this season. He found 98 a couple times and danced around a bunch of traffic with four strikeouts. The most impressive came off his first batter, George Springer, who he got with a high fastball. He needed some help from his defense, but he got it. A leaping Leo Rivas stole a line drive out of the air in the second, and Josh Naylor and J.P. Crawford turned an outstanding double play after the third inning started with a leadoff double for the third day in a row. Even more impressive was the double play in the fourth. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Miller got Daulton Varsho to chase a nasty splitter. Then Ernie Clement hit a ball right in front of the plate, which started backspinning toward home. But Cal Raleigh jumped on top of it before it could go foul, stepped on the plate, and threw down to first to end the threat and secure his first Sun Hat Award of the playoffs for making a notable contribution to a game.
Dan Wilson sent Miller back out for the fifth but pulled him in favor of Matt Brash after Addison Barger snuck in a leadoff hit. Brash got some weak contact from IKF and Andrés Giménez, but gave up a ringing double to George Springer that scored Barger. That tied the game, equalizing a solo shot from Suárez in the second, the only real offense the Mariners had managed. After Brash, Wilson asked Bryan Woo to come out of the bullpen for his first appearance since late September’s manhandling of the Astros. Alejandro Kirk ambushed his first pitch for a double and scored on a miserable throw to the plate by Dominic Canzone when Ernie Clement hit a routine single later that inning. With how things had been going, that 2-1 lead looked likely to stick.
But then we got to that bottom of the eighth inning. Rather than call on his best relievers to face the heart of the Mariners’ order, John Schneider instead opted to battle the familiarity penalty by bringing in Brandon Little. Going with a lefty would force Cal Raleigh and Jorge Polanco to turn around to the right side for the first time this series and get a different look. But while he’s better from the left side, Cal’s hardly a slouch in the righty box, and he immediately hit a 108.6-mph moonshot that somehow avoided the beams in the roof and snuck over the fence to tie the game.
Polanco walked. So did Josh Naylor. After three batters, Schnieder had seen quite enough and brought in Seranthony Dominguez, who promptly hit Randy Arozarena to load the bases with nobody out. Up came Suárez again, fresh off the home run that interrupted his cold streak. After a six-pitch battle, including just getting the edge of the bat on a ball well outside the zone, he reached back and let it rip.
Forty-nine years have passed since that Diego Seguí walk. A decade of losing seasons. A team that featured three first-ballot Hall of Famers. A team with more wins in a season than any other. Harold Reynolds and Jamie Moyer. Mike Cameron and Kyle Seager. After untold My Oh Mys, Goodbye Baseballs, Hey Nows, Goldsmith Grinds, and Grandma was sent for that rye bread and mustard one more time. The Seattle Mariners are just one win away from becoming American League Champions.
