The Dodgers are going back to the World Series to defend their crown, sweeping the Brewers in the most one-sided series of this postseason and indeed the last few. About 1,000 miles north, the Mariners snagged a win at home to put them one victory away from their first World Series appearance in franchise history. Let’s see how it all shook out.
American League Championship Series Game 5
Seattle Mariners 6, Toronto Blue Jays 2
(Mariners lead, 3-2)
Eugenio Suárez was the Mariners’ crown jewel addition at the trade deadline, Jerry Dipoto hopeful
that adding the slugger with the third-most home runs in the NL to a lineup that already featured MLB home run leader Cal Raleigh would create an offense that could finally pull its weight alongside their perennial top pitching staff. Instead, Suárez was one of Seattle’s worst hitters down the stretch, going from a .248/.320/.576 hitter with a 26.8-percent strikeout rate and 141 wRC+ in 106 games with the Diamondbacks to a triple slash line of .189/.255/.428 with a 35.9-percent strikeout rate and 91 wRC+ in 53 regular season games with the Mariners. Things didn’t improve in the playoffs, Suárez still striking out 35.9-percent of the time with just one home run and a measly 36 wRC+ in nine games entering play Friday.
Well, he made up for those disappointing two-and-a-half months and then some with a performance that will enter the (admittedly limited) annals of Mariners postseason history. He launched a pair of home runs including the game-winning grand slam in the bottom of the eighth to ensure the series heads back to Toronto with the Mariners having won one game on home turf.
His first home run opened the scoring with one out in the second, Suárez crushing a first-pitch, center-cut fastball from Kevin Gausman over the bullpen in left.
That would turn out to be the lone blemish on Gausman’s night as he allowed just two more hits and three walks across his 5.2 total innings of work, his splitter proving as challenging for the Mariners as it did for the Yankees in the ALDS.
Bryce Miller was the unlikely hero of Game 1 of this series, rebounding from a replacement-level regular season in which he sported a 5.68 ERA in 18 starts to toss six innings of one-run ball. He reprised that role tonight, holding the Blue Jays scoreless through the first four innings that included one of the most timely Houdini acts of the season. Toronto loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth on a Nathan Lukes leadoff double, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. intentional walk, and Alejandro Kirk free pass, but Miller got that all important first out striking out Daulton Varsho on a nasty splitter. Ernie Clement then pounded a first-pitch splitter into the dirt right in front of home, the ball sticking in the dirt just inches in front of the plate. Cal Raleigh quickly gobbled the ball up before it could roll foul, stepped on home, and then threw to first to complete the inning-ending double play with the lead intact.
With Gausman settling into a groove, the Toronto bats started to string together hits. Addison Barger led off the fifth with a single, convincing Dan Wilson to pull Miller from the game with his pitch count at just 56. Wilson has had a quick trigger pulling his starters this postseason and almost every time it has blown up in his face — this time was no different. Matt Brash came on and surrendered the game-tying RBI double to George Springer (who had to leave the game two innings later after getting hit on the knee by a 96 mph sinker).
Bryan Woo had been initially left off the postseason roster before being added for the ALCS. He had a career year with a 2.94 ERA in 30 starts, but with almost a month between competitive starts, the rust the decision makers allowed him to accrue reared its head in the sixth. He surrendered a leadoff double to Alejandro Kirk and the go-ahead RBI single to Ernie Clement two batters later, and even this one-run deficit appeared insurmountable the way Gausman and Louis Varland were shutting down the Seattle offense after the second.
However, the tide turned in the eighth. Lefty specialist Brendon Little was tasked with facing the meat of the Mariners lineup. He faced three batters and couldn’t record an out, serving up a leadoff home run to Raleigh and walking Jorge Polanco and Josh Naylor before being replaced by Seranthony Domínguez. The hard-throwing righty didn’t fare any better, plunking Randy Arozarena to load the bases and then grooving a 2-2 four-seamer to Suárez, who crushed it to right for the game-winning grand slam.
The Mariners send the series back to Toronto up three games to two. Having won the first two games at the Rogers Centre, they have to feel encouraged about their chances to advance to the first World Series in franchise history.
National League Championship Series Game 4
Los Angeles Dodgers 5, Milwaukee Brewers 1
(Dodgers sweep, 4-0)
It’s only fitting that in one of the most lopsided LCS in recent history, the Brewers felt the full force of Shohei Ohtani to get swept out of the postseason. The presumptive NL MVP had been uncharacteristically quiet this postseason, slashing just .158/.273/.368 with a 38.6-percent strikeout rate and 52 wRC+ in nine games. Tonight, he turned in an entire postseason’s worth of value, becoming the first starting pitcher in MLB history to hit a leadoff home run — in a clinching NLCS game no less. Oh yeah, he also hit two more home runs and struck out ten across six scoreless innings of two-hit ball as it felt like the Dodgers still would have won if he had been the only player on the field for them.
Pat Murphy tried to get cute using José Quintana as a pseudo-opener despite having made just one appearance since suffering a calf strain on September 14th. The move backfired spectacularly, Quintana getting crushed for three runs in the bottom of the first. Ohtani led it off with a booming home run to right, Mookie Betts and Will Smith followed with a pair of singles, and Tommy Edman and Teoscar Hernández drove the pair home with an RBI single and RBI ground out, respectively.
For the next six innings, it was all Sho-time. He hit his second solo shot in the fourth — somehow an even more titanic blast than his first, this tank sailing 469 feet to right, almost clearing the pavilion and leaving Dodger Stadium. His third solo shot came in the seventh off a 1-2, 99 mph four-seamer from Trevor Megill to conclude the scoring for Los Angeles. On the mound, he allowed just five baserunners — a Brice Turang walk to lead off the game, a Blake Perkins walk to lead off the third, a Jackson Chourio double to lead off the the fourth, and a Christian Yelich walk and William Contreras single to open the seventh and end his night. He struck out three in the first and a pair each in the fourth, fifth, and sixth in what had to be the most dominant all-around performance in modern playoff history.
Milwaukee got their lone consolation run on a Chourio RBI single in the eighth, but their showing in this game was emblematic of their no-show the entire series. Next to the 2019 Cardinals, I’m not sure I can recall a team being as thoroughly outclassed in the NLCS as the Brewers were over the last week. They scored one run in each of the four games and managed just 14 hits the whole series — that equates to a .118 team batting average, the lowest ever in a seven-game series in MLB postseason history.
With the sweep, the Dodgers become the first reigning champions since the 2009 Phillies to return to the World Series with a chance to defend their crown. They just made the winningest team of the regular season look like a Triple-A squad and I shudder to think of what awaits either the Mariners or Blue Jays in a few days’ time.