IT WAS WONDERFUL
Last night, I felt so lucky to be a baseball fan. Maybe you have to be in love with the game to truly appreciate what it felt like to watch inning, after inning, after inning of well-played, well-pitched, tense baseball, but that was me last night (and early this morning) as I watched Seattle eliminate the Tigers, 3-2 in 15 innings.
It was the longest game in the history of sudden-death postseason baseball. It ended when the Tigers brought Tommy Kahnle in to pitch. He was their eighth pitcher of the night. The Mariners used seven. J.P. Crawford hit a leadoff single. It was only their seventh hit of the night. The Tigers had eight (as would the M’s). Randy Arozarena was hit by a pitch for the second time. The Mariners were hit by three pitches; the Tigers were hit by one. Then Cal Raleigh flew out; he was 1-5 on the night with two walks. Both runners advanced on the flyout, and when Parker Meadows throw went awry, Arozarena reached second as Crawford advanced to third. Kahnle intentionally walked Julio Rodríguez to load the bases. Rodriguez was 0-5 on the night with two walks. Raleigh was intentionally passed earlier in the game, and the Tigers received two IBB as well. There were 11 walks issued in the game. The Mariners drew seven, including the two intentionals, and the Tigers only drew four walks, two of which were intentional. With force outs and double play chances everywhere, Jorge Polanco singled to right to drive in Crawford for the winning run, and the LDS went to the Mariners, who advanced to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2001. They have never played in the World Series.
BY THE NUMBERS
I have only given you the recap of the final half-inning, and I have not done the game justice by doing that.
But understand that his game took two minutes short of five hours to play. There were 472 pitches thrown, 263 by the Tigers and 209 by the Mariners, by the 15 total pitchers. There were 304 strikes. Only 78 misses out of the 240 swings. There were 143 four-seam fastballs and 140 sliders. Not one sweeper was thrown, and there were only two cutters.
The Tigers were 8-51 (.151) and the Mariners were 8-47 (.170), but this was not a game of hitter ineptitude. This was great pitching. There were 37 strikeouts. Thirteen of the 20 strikeouts for the Mariners were recorded by the magnificent Tarik Skubal in the first six innings of this game.
In this LDS, Skubal threw 13.0 IP. He allowed three runs on seven hits, walked one, and struck out 22. He had an ERA of 2.08. The Tigers lost both of his starts. You might recall that in the Wild Card Series, Skubal struck out 14 Guardians. Last night, Skubal became the first pitcher in postseason history with multiple 13-plus strikeout games in a single postseason. The only other pitchers with two such postseason outings in a career are Gerrit Cole and Bob Gibson.
I don’t understand how the TV numbers on this game won’t be a billion viewers. How on earth is everyone not watching this? - Ben Verlander
Of the 16 hits in this game, there were 11 singles, four doubles, and a homer by Kerry Carpenter in the 6th inning off Gabe Speier. Of the eight hits by the Tigers, Carpenter had four of them. He went 4-5 and drove home both Detroit runs. The Mariner runs were driven in by Polanco, Mitch Garver on a sac fly off Skubal that gave Seattle the lead in the 2nd inning, and by Leo Rivas, whose pinch-hit single, on his birthday, tied the game in the bottom of the 7th. Rivas joined the Braves’ Francisco Cabrera (1993 NLCS Game 4) and the White Sox’s Swede Risberg (1917 World Series Game 5) as the only players with a postseason pinch hit on their birthday.
The nine players who started the game for Detroit finished the game for the Tigers. A.J. Hinch made no substitutions. The only lineup change for Seattle was Dominic Canzone pinch-hitting for DH Mitch Garver and Rivas pinch-hitting for Canzone before Dominic could even bat.
The Mariners used both Game 3 starter Logan Gilbert and Game 2 starter Luis Castillo in relief, while the Tigers went with Game 3 starter Jack Flaherty and his high-wire act. Detroit also used rookie Troy Melton, who started Game 1, and tossed a scoreless relief inning. Melton will turn 25 in December, and he looks really good.
Scott Torkelson, who hit only .190 in the LDS and .188 in the postseason for Detroit, was the only batter to have been struck out four times last night. Six players picked up the hat trick with three strikeouts each.
THREE FINAL THOUGHTS
I hope MLB never institutes the Manfred man in the postseason. It seemed like every inning in extras, a team was able to get a runner in scoring position of their own accord, and that made it so much more exciting and satisfying.
If A.J. Pierzynski and Adam Wainwright were doing color for every remaining game of this postseason, I would be fine with that. They were terrific. Conversational, but not too talky. You could hear their joy in what they were watching. They gave insights and delighted when they were wrong. They are a model team and great for fans of every magnitude. Tom Verducci is so smart and so underused during broadcasts.
It will be the Mariners vs. the Blue Jays in the ALCS. The Jays had to be delighted as their future opponent was going through pitcher after pitcher. Additionally, the scouting they did during that game probably produced a volume of material more verbose than me! Seattle has never been to the World Series, and Toronto has not been to the big dance since 1993. These two teams were the AL expansion teams in 1977.
SOMETIMES WE WIN, SOMETIMES WE CRY
To the Mariners and Tiger fans out there: Van Morrison and Tom Jones take us home today. This is our song of the day.
TONIGHT’S GAME 5 STARTS AT 8:08 ON FOX
Neither the Brewers nor the Cubs has announced their pitchers.
ON THIS DATE IN BASEBALL HISTORY
On October 11, 1999, Pedro Martinez put on a magnificent display of relief pitching for the Red Sox. It was Game 5 of the ALDS, and the team then known as the Indians was leading the Sox 8-7 after only three innings. As Boston’s half of the 4th ended, Pedro emerged from the bullpen.
Cleveland had scored their eight runs on seven hits in the first three innings. When this game ended, the Indians had totaled eight runs on seven hits. The Red Sox won 12-8 as Martinez struck out eight in six hitless innings. Nomar Garciaparra was intentionally walked twice by the Cleveland pitchers, and twice, Troy O’Leary followed him by homering. He drove home seven runs in the victory.
MORE THAN JUST A SINGER IN A ROCK AND ROLL BAND
John Lodge, singer, songwriter, and bass player for the British rock band The Moody Blues for more than 50 years, has died. He was 82. He wasn’t just a singer in a rock-and-roll band.