The Mariners were trailing the Toronto Blue Jays by seven runs in the sixth inning of Saturday’s AL Wild Card Game 2, and by all accounts, the outlook was bleak for Seattle.
But as the Mariners have done for much of this season, they found a way to win to the absolute delight of postseason-starved Mariners fans. All it took was a look at some security footage from a Seattle car dealership to know just what that comeback 10-9 win meant to Mariners fans.
Video hit Twitter on Monday showing security footage from a Toyota service center in Seattle. And we could see as several employees went completely nuts as the Mariners finished off the comeback. We didn’t even need audio — the video spoke for itself.
My dad drives for Toyota of Seattle and works with these guys in the service center. This was caught on camera Saturday when the M’s finished off that comeback. (Wait for the guy at the end 😂) pic.twitter.com/0vsQxHMQQg
The best part had to be when the fourth employee skipped into the frame and joined the group for a celebratory dance huddle. I mean, it doesn’t get more delightful than that. It was the epitome of pure joy.
MLB fans everywhere particularly loved this footage, and we can’t blame them. It was phenomenal.
Facing elimination, the Toronto Blue Jays jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the fifth inning of Game 2 of their American League Wild Card series against the Seattle Mariners.
Before they could even let the sure victory sink in, the lead was cut to 8-5 the next inning. Four innings later, their season was over. The Blue Jays lost the game 10-9.
It was an epic postseason collapse, one not seen since 2008 — and only one other time before that had a team blown a seven-run lead in the playoffs. For those who bet on Toronto to win, which was pretty much everybody, it was an all-time bad beat.
80% of money was on the Blue Jays -170.
This was only the third time EVER that a team rallied from 7+ runs down in the playoffs.
Toronto had a win probability of 99%! And 80% of moneyline bettors at BetMGM picked the Jays to win, which looked promising when starting pitcher Kevin Gausman was pulled to a standing ovation.
Then the bullpen proceeded to meltdown, and a season that started with so much promise for Toronto ended in severe disappointment. This one is going to sting for a long time.
The Seattle Mariners haven’t been in the playoffs since 2001 but they looked right at home in Game 1 of their wild-card series with the Blue Jays on Friday afternoon, winning 4-0 in Toronto to take a 1-0 series lead.
The Mariners pitchers – starter Luis Castillo and reliever Andrés Muñoz – were so good all day long and showed why this Seattle team could be a lot of trouble in the playoffs.
Munoz pitched the eighth and ninth innings to get the save and the dude was throwing pure gas for his entire outing. This 103 mph pitch that he threw for a strike against Vlad Guerrero Jr. was just ridiculous.
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MLB’s 162-game regular season is over and it’s now time to get serious. I’m talking about some playoff baseball, folks, where championships are won and legacies are made.
This year’s playoff format is going to look different to all of us, with one more team added in each league and with the two top seeds in the AL and NL getting a bye through the wild-card round.
I think the addition of teams is actually a great move for baseball, which needs all the help it can get these days. Adding two more fanbases – Seattle and Philadelphia this year – only adds the excitement and puts more eyes on the product, which is a good thing.
The NFL recently added a team to the playoffs in each conference and that feels like a little bit of overkill. The NFL is a huge beast that doesn’t need to worry about having eyes on its product.
MLB, however, needs to find ways to attract fans and this does just that. Think those fans in Seattle, who haven’t seen their team in the playoffs since 2001, aren’t going to bring something extra to the postseason experience when their series with the Blue Jays kicks off? Think those Phillies fans aren’t ready to go nuts while playing the Cardinals in their wild card series?
The other two series have the Rays facing the Guardians and the Mets squaring off with the Padres.
It’s all pretty great for baseball, which is a wild thing to say because I’m used to Rob Manfred screwing everything up.
The two wild card series in each league will be best-of-3 series, which works, too. Sure the one-and-done games in the past were a lot of fun but after 162 games it does make a little more sense to give each team more of a fighting chance.
Allowing the top teams to have byes is good, too, because they deserve to have a little extra rest as a reward for what they accomplished in the regular season.
All this playoff action starts Friday and while regular season baseball can be a long drag at times, baseball’s postseason is one of the best postseasons in all of sports and I can’t wait for it.
Quick hits: Draymond Green-Jordan Poole altercation… Shohei Ohtani’s hilarious ‘threat’… So long, Roger Maris Jr…. And more.
But, obviously, 21 years is a long time. That means the last time the Mariners made the playoffs was in 2001. Someone who hadn’t even been born yet might be able to legally drink a beer in that time span.
So we thought it’d be fun to take a look back and see what the world was like the last time the Mariners made the playoffs. Below is that list. And it’s almost certainly going to make you feel old, but it’ll also be a fun trip down memory lane.
For the first time since 2001, the Mariners will be going to the playoffs. And for the rest of his life, Cal Raleigh will forever be a legend in Seattle. He gave the city’s baseball team the biggest moment it has seen in two decades.
Things were simple for the Mariners coming into Friday night’s game against the A’s. All they needed to do was win and they’d be playoff bound.
A win was far from guaranteed, though. The game came down to the bottom of the 9th inning with both teams only having scored one run. The Mariners were on their final out of the inning when Cal Raleigh came up to bat.
Then this magic happened.
Cal Raleigh sends the Mariners to the postseason with an emphatic walk-off 💣 … This place is going nuts. pic.twitter.com/dMkfWu2wvX
And for the first time in 21 years, the Mariners are going to the playoffs. The crowd went crazy. Bliss covered the entire team. It was a moment for Seattle sports.
Pitchers Robbie Ray and Luke Weaver were teammates in Arizona for a couple seasons, and that friendship clearly carried on to their new spots with the Mariners and Royals.
But we have now learned that there is no place for friendly competition when umpire Adrian Johnson is around.
Ahead of Sunday’s game between the Mariners and Royals, both Ray and Weaver stood at the dugout steps to have a good, old-fashioned national anthem standoff. And the two players were so committed to the standoff that the umpires had to get involved.
The two pitchers probably didn’t expect the umpires to take the standoff so seriously, but Johnson could not have been more annoyed.
Former teammates Luke Weaver and Robbie Ray had a National Anthem standoff that lasted so long the umpires had to get involved 🤣 pic.twitter.com/w3EHU4z3Eq
After Johnson initially told them to cut it out and go to the dugout with little success, the umpire actually ejected both players. We could see as he made note in his scorebook, and Ray didn’t seem to realize it as he was celebrating the standoff victory. They announced the ejection in the press box as well.
Announcement just made in press box. Mariners starter Robbie Ray and Royals reliever Luke Weaver were ejected prior to the start of today's game.
Ray wasn’t scheduled to start on Sunday, and it was unlikely that Weaver was going to see action. So, the ejections didn’t have any impact on the game. MLB fans did use the ordeal as an opportunity to roast the umpire, though. It was another example of baseball getting in its own way when it comes to fun displays of personality.
This might be the coolest pitch of the MLB season.
We’re living in a time where Major League Baseball pitchers are throwing just the most ridiculous pitches in the history of the game. And we’re reminded of that just about every day by so many different dudes who take the mound and find cool ways to make hitters look silly.
The latest example of that came Wednesday in Seattle when Mariners pitcher Luis Castillo struck out Padres slugger Juan Soto with a 99 mph two-seamer that had so much movement on it that it left fans in awe while wondering how it was evenly physically possible to throw such a pitch.
It was easy to miss amid all the Week 1 NFL action, but the Atlanta Braves and Seattle Mariners played one of the wilder games of the MLB season on Sunday.
With the Braves trailing by four runs and down to their final strike, Atlanta had a five-run, two-out rally to astonishingly take the lead on the Mariners in the ninth. They just needed closer Kenley Jansen to pitch a clean bottom half to leave Seattle with an improbable series win.
Jansen would give Atlanta anything but that.
After getting the first out in the ninth, Jansen gave up a pair of home runs — one to Julio Rodriguez and a walk-off shot to Eugenio Suarez — as the Mariners escaped with an 8-7 win.
Now, the Braves acquired Kenley Jansen in the offseason because they believed that the longtime Dodgers closer had the ability to take Atlanta’s bullpen to the next level. They demoted Will Smith to a set-up role before trading him at the deadline, but as Jansen started to struggle, the acquisition of Raisel Iglesias seemed to signal uncertainty about Jansen.
You just wouldn’t pick up on that notion by hearing what manager Brian Snitker had to say after the game.
When asked about Jansen’s latest blown save, Snitker defended his closer and pointed out that Jansen leads the league in saves. And sure, Jansen does lead the league in saves — he’s also second in blown saves.
But just like pitcher win-loss record, that stat can be deceptive as Jansen has still allowed runs in seven of those saves. The fact is that in Jansen’s past seven appearances, he has an 11.12 ERA with three homers and seven earned runs allowed. He’s blown three saves in that span and appears to be getting worse with each appearance.
In a pennant race with the now-NL East-leading New York Mets, a dependable closer is key. So while Snitker wasn’t going to throw Jansen under the bus to the media, Braves fans were still frustrated with the latest defense of Jansen.
Seattle’s two most prominent professional teams are giving each other plenty of acknowledgement online.
Seahawks football is right around the corner with an appointment against the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football, but baseball is the talk of the town in the Emerald City right now. The Seahawks’ neighbors to the south of Lumen Field, the Mariners, are in the midst of one of their best seasons in the last 20 years. Seattle’s professional teams have always had a supportive bond, and right now, that bond is on full display.
It started on when Seahawks tight end Will Dissly ended his press conference with an important announcement. Seattle’s athletes have never been shy about dipping their toes into the political scene, and Dissly took the time for a crucial midterm election update.
In today’s divided political climate, Mitch Haniger might be one of the few who can garner true bipartisan support, especially with his high caliber of play. Since returning from injury, Haniger has resumed his typical production, including hitting a walk-off single to defeat the Cleveland Guardians last weekend.
Of course, what true-to-the-blue Seattle fan could vote against a man wearing such a stylish Seahawks shirt.
Following the Mariners’ sweep of the Detroit Tigers, the team boarded the plane with a theme of football jerseys. Haniger was not alone in his support for the Seahawks. Pitcher Matt Boyd, who grew up in the Seattle area, made his debut for the Mariners and can be seen wearing the retro Steve Largent jersey.
Additionally, fellow Seattle-kid Jake Lamb is behind Haniger wearing another retro Seahawks look.
But of course, the player who will catch the eye of all the 12’s is most assuredly rookie phenom Julio Rodriguez wearing a DK Metcalf jersey.
There is little doubt the two biggest stars in the Seattle sports landscape are DK Metcalf and Julio Rodriguez. With both of them signing incredibly lucrative extensions this summer, the 12th Man will have plenty of opportunities to watch both players dominate their respective sports for years to come.
