Mariners win AL Wild Card Collection 2022

TORONTO — The message from Scott Servais was easy, but its utility far simpler mentioned than completed. “Count on the anticipated,” the Mariners supervisor has repeatedly mentioned within the days main as much as the AL Wild Card Collection and all through this weekend at Rogers Centre.

“If you’re in that second,” Servais mentioned of adversity on the street, “you need to understand you are in that second. How do you flip it the opposite method? … It is going to occur. That is the great thing about playoff baseball.”

Name it magnificence, resilience or just unbelievable, the Mariners embodied each little bit of it in storming again from a seven-run deficit to stun the Blue Jays in a 10-9 victory that may go down as an on the spot October traditional. The comeback was the second-largest in playoff historical past, the most important for a workforce on the street and the most important in a series-clinching recreation.

It additionally secured a berth within the AL Division Collection, nearly poetically, with division-rival Houston — the juggernaut Seattle has been chasing for years — and much more considerably, ensured that Seattle will host a playoff recreation. The Mariners will return to T-Cell Park for ALDS Recreation 3 on Saturday, and if needed, Recreation 4 on Sunday, within the best-of-five sequence. 

“To have a possibility to play in entrance of all of the followers within the Pacific Northwest and the way lengthy they have been [waiting],” Servais mentioned. “They’re ravenous for this.”

At this fee, possibly that residence recreation would be the first of many. For a roster that’s principally by no means been right here earlier than, the Mariners seem like (publish)seasoned veterans.

“I don’t take into consideration profitable one sequence,” veteran outfielder Mitch Haniger mentioned. “I take into consideration profitable the World Collection loads. Like, each day.”

Adam Frazier ripped a go-ahead RBI double with two outs within the high of the ninth inning to attain Cal Raleigh, who’d preceded together with his personal two-bagger into the right-center hole, and despatched the visiting dugout into utter jubilation.

But these moments solely turned fateful after J.P. Crawford tied the sport together with his personal double, a blooper into shallow middle with the bases loaded that cleared them and tied the sport at 9 within the eighth inning. Crawford’s heroics have been arrange after Raleigh, Mitch Haniger and Frazier had every singled. And Raleigh’s base hit sparked the rally by driving in Eugenio Suárez, who led off with a double off Toronto reliever Anthony Bass.

Crawford’s hit landed so narrowly in between Toronto middle fielder George Springer and shortstop Bo Bichette that it led to a nasty collision as each dove for the ball, after which Springer was carted off the sector. Springer was “doing OK” postgame.

As for the comeback, it wasn’t simply October theater; Saturday’s rally was the Mariners’ largest of a minimum of seven runs since July 26, 2021, a thriller over the Astros that continues to be among the many highlights of this period in Seattle.

Hours felt like eons in how a lot the dynamic of Saturday’s recreation shifted. Till the eighth, the script, in each conceivable method, had flipped on the Mariners from their dominant Recreation 1 win.

Seattle’s oft-reliable arm on the mound was bounced early, the opposing pitcher had each nasty velocity and motion to halt the offense, and even when the Mariners have been in a position to punch again amid a deafening street atmosphere, their bullpen coughed up one run after one other, making it seem like a rally can be out of attain.

That adopted a vastly anticipated however finally disappointing return to Toronto for Robbie Ray, who didn’t pitch deeper than the primary batter of the fourth inning, exiting after surrendering 4 runs, together with two huge homers to Teoscar Hernández.

“Truthfully, I went again all the way down to the dugout after I got here in and cooled off,” Ray mentioned. “And everyone was nonetheless upbeat, able to go, taking actually good at-bats. It simply appeared prefer it was gonna break by means of sooner or later.”

However the Mariners, considered one of MLB’s youngest groups this 12 months, have been unfazed. Maybe much more exceptional was how Servais’ forecast had manifested itself, as if the seventh-year skipper had a crystal ball.

“I feel if you get in hassle is if you attempt to flip the momentum and also you say, ‘OK, I will be the man that hits a house run right here,’ or, ‘I will be the man that strikes out the aspect right here,'” Servais mentioned. “Do the little issues. Have an excellent at-bat. Work out the right way to get on base. Create a rally and go the baton to the subsequent man. In case you concentrate on the little issues, typically large issues occur.”

And that is exactly what did occur. The Mariners led MLB in one-run wins every of the previous two seasons (34 this 12 months and 33 in 2021), which they imagine helps them in these tight video games late.

“Simply preserve chipping away,” Crawford mentioned. “We had a bunch of time left. Simply get one right here, one there, preserve having good [at-bats], preserve the road shifting, preserve getting runners on like we have been doing the entire recreation, and ultimately, we’ll discover some holes. And we lastly discovered some holes.”

The Mariners have been already among the many groups followers outdoors the Pacific Northwest might latch onto, with eclectic personalities, an inclination to play in tight video games and enjoying a enjoyable model of baseball. And their newest victory was essentially the most illustrative encapsulation but of that id.