ALDS Game 5: A Mariners win vs. Tigers is only acceptable outcome

A banner for a division title will be hung for the first time in 24 years. 

That won’t be enough. 

A catcher hit 60 home runs and may go on to win the American League MVP Award. 

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That won’t be enough. 

Champagne filled the clubhouse twice this year. The front office has loaded this team with stars. Clutch performances have permeated the season and captivated the city. 

But none of that will be enough without a win Friday night against the Detroit Tigers in Game 5 of the American League Division Series. Mariners fans need more. 

Sometimes a city appreciates a triple-your-heart-rate run through the playoffs regardless of the result. The Kraken’s unexpected march to Game 7 of the second round in 2023 was a prime example. Anything beyond that would have been gravy. A Mariners’ loss Friday would just be grave.

I’ve written about the randomness of MLB playoffs enough to easily fill two hands. The 111-win Dodgers of 2022 lost to the Padres in the first round, and the next year all three of the league’s 100-win teams lost in their opening rounds. But all of those teams have won a World Series at some point. The Mariners haven’t. And this wasn’t a club that limped into the postseason — it’s one that smashed its way in with a Space Needle-sized Louisville Slugger. 

There was a stretch in September in which the M’s won 17 of 18 games — including 10 in a row. The primary trade-deadline acquisitions — Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suárez — slugged 22 home runs in the final third of the season. At one point, a playoff berth seemed questionable, then suddenly the Mariners had a first-round bye. 

But what have they done with it? Well it’s hard to fault two of the performances. The Mariners took Game 2 off Detroit in a 3-2 victory that included two runs off AL Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal and eighth-inning doubles from Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez. And they slammed their way to an 8-4 win in Game 3, when they held a seven-run lead at one point. The problem is they’ve held the lead in every game this series. The Tigers just managed to make two of them evaporate. 

The Mariners offense was among the best in the AL this year — especially since the trade deadline — but it managed just two runs in Game 1 against a Detroit team essentially pitching its bullpen. Some have wondered if manager Dan Wilson could have pulled starter George Kirby before he gave up a two-run homer to Kerry Carpenter in the fifth. But that was your Game 1 starter. It was the Mariners’ “O” minus Raleigh and Rodríguez that fell short in the game. The M’s also had a three-run lead entering the bottom of the fifth in Game 4 on Wednesday — looking like they were on their way to the ALCS. This time they pulled starter Bryce Miller with one out in the fifth, only for Gabe Speier to allow two runs and Eduard Bazardo three runs — all in the span of 1 2/3 innings.

Again, you can blame Wilson if you want on that judgment call, but those pitchers — particularly Speier — need to get guys out. The bullpen has been distressingly shaky the past two games. Everyone is going to have to be at their best when Seattle takes on Skubal again in Game 5 on Friday. The Mariners are not favored to win, but they weren’t the last time they faced the ace, either. Can you imagine what it will feel like to have won a game Skubal started once this series and not move on to the next round?

There really are only two narratives here for Friday. The first is that the M’s not once, but twice this postseason took down perhaps the best hurler in the game. It would actually mark the fourth time this year they won a game he started going back to the regular season. The story would be one of grit and resilience and magic in one of the more inspiring seasons in team history. Maybe it will eventually be seen as the pivotal moment in their World Series run. 

Or it will be of the season that got away — the playoff series in which two leads were lost and a Tarik takedown was for naught. 

Yes, the MLB playoffs are random. Yes, the front office set this team up to succeed. Yes, nearly every moment of the past two months has been exhilarating. 

But there is only one acceptable result Friday. The M’s have given their fans everything they’ve had this season — but they haven’t yet given them enough.