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david schoenfield
Are we having fun yet? Friday was one of the most unforgettable days ever seen in the playoffs, with Eugenio Suarez’s go-ahead grand slam rocking T-Mobile Park. seattle mariners One win away from the World Series, and then Shohei Ohtani’s historic three-homer, 10-strikeout performance that probably goes down as the greatest individual performance in postseason history.
Let’s call this a top five day so far and add it to our list of future projects to research. Meanwhile, with Ohtani los angeles dodgers In the World Series, we have one game left on Sunday: the Seattle Mariners vs. toronto blue jaysGame 6 of the ALCS.
Let’s take a deeper look at this with some keys to watch as the remaining World Series berths are up for grabs.
Guerrero has had a stellar postseason, hitting .457/.524/.971 with five home runs. After an unsuccessful first two games of the ALCS, he did his best Roy Hobbs impersonation in Seattle, going 7-for-11 with five extra-base hits. He has only two strikeouts in 42 plate appearances in the postseason, and he has recorded 15 balls in play clocked at over 100 mph, including six of his seven hits at T-Mobile.
“He’s a special player, a special talent, an amazing guy to be with,” teammate ernie clement Said. “She’s had success every step of the way, and I couldn’t be happier for her. I’m very proud of the work she’s done. To do it on the biggest stage, it’s a testament to her work.”
In Game 5, the Mariners intentionally walked Guerrero twice, once in the fourth inning with no one out and a runner on second base – his second intentional walk without anyone out in the postseason, the first time that happened since 2016 – and again in the seventh with two outs and a runner on second base.
The Mariners escaped both jams, but they’re playing with fire — and that’s whether they pitch him or whether they put him in. This is certainly not an easy decision for manager Dan Wilson with Guerrero, but ultimately one of those deliberate moves is going to backfire and potentially lead to a big turnaround.
Toronto’s Challenge: Achieving cal raleigh Outside
Raleigh followed his historic 60-homer season with an excellent postseason of his own, hitting .333/.435/.692 with four home runs, a Mariner who has shown consistent offensive performance. Suarez’s slam in Game 5 was a moment for the history books, but that moment might never have happened if Raleigh hadn’t tied the game with his huge home run to left in the bottom of the eighth inning that seemed high enough to top the Space Needle.
“Oh my God, that ball took so long to get down,” said the teammate. brian woo“I can’t say I’m surprised now, but he continues to impress and show up in big moments.”
The Blue Jays have mostly gone right after Raleigh, who has issued three walks in five games, one of them intentional. This also included a game-tying home run. Brendan Little Got 2-0 down but came up with a sharp ball – a bit high up the middle.
“A lot of times I go out there and just start swinging and try to hit something hard,” Raleigh said, “but I was patiently sitting there waiting for my pitch and understanding just let the game come to me, try and make solid contact, no need to hit a home run, no need to try to hit the ball 500 feet, just do something good and the adrenaline usually takes over in those moments.” Will go.
Toronto’s potential secret hero: Ernie Clement
Following the Blue Jays’ victory in Game 3, Clement had called himself “probably the worst hitter in baseball” a few years earlier. He was referring to 2022, when he hit .184/.243/.209 in 179 plate appearances with the Guardians and Athletics — which led to the Guardians letting him go, and then the A’s claiming him on waivers during spring training in 2023 with the Blue Jays.
The one-time worst hitter in baseball played in 157 games this season, had his best season at the plate with a .277/.313/.398 line and 46 extra-base hits, and is a Gold Glove finalist at two positions – third base (where he started 66 games) and the utility slot (he also started games at second base, shortstop, and first base).
He then had a standout postseason performance, hitting .429 with 15 hits, the most for a player in the first nine games of his postseason career since Daniel Murphy in 2015. He attributed his success to learning from his failures – “I’ve had quite a few of them,” he said – and understanding that he performs at his best when he’s swinging often, even if that goes against the modern tradition of waiting for your pitch.
“I just started focusing on my strength a little bit, which is putting the bat on the ball. I tried to work on the count a little bit and maybe draw some walks and try to hit for more power, and that’s not really my game. Over the last few years, I’ve learned to come out harder on opposing pitchers with my ability to hit pitchers’ pitches, and I’ve really become more aggressive.”
Seattle’s potential secret hero: Brian Wu
The Mariners’ top starter in the regular season had been sidelined since September 19 with a right pectoral strain. He was not on the ALDS roster, but eventually made his postseason debut in Game 5, pitching two innings of relief. alejandro kirk Ringling welcomed him with a double and then Clements broke him out with an RBI single, although he bounced back with a scoreless seventh, getting out of that jam when Kirk returned to the mound.
It wasn’t necessarily a spectacular effort – he didn’t record a strikeout and only had two swings and missed out of 28 pitches – but it was good enough. He enjoyed running among the “flames” as he walked out of the bullpen to the mound. “Yeah, I told Logan [Gilbert] When he did it the other day, it sounded the best ever, so I tried to repeat it.”
Wu said he would have to wait and see how he feels over the next few days, and that he was not ready to start yet, but added, “I would love to contribute in the next few games.” Given Wilson’s quick hook luis castillo Relatively quick hooks with Miller in Game 4 and Game 5, Wu’s ability to throw multiple innings to help close the gap andres munoz Looks big, whether it’s in Game 6 or Game 7.
Key stats to watch: 28 vs 49
The Blue Jays have struck out only 28 times through the first five games compared to the Mariners’ 49. The Blue Jays had the lowest strikeout rate in the majors in the regular season and were striking out even less often during the playoffs (only 14.4% of the time in the ALCS). However, this hasn’t really generated too much hard contact in this series, as the Jays have had 53 balls in the game that have been classified as hard-hit balls (95-plus mph), while the Mariners have hit 51. The Jays have 14 balls hit at 105-plus mph, and the Mariners have 15.
Still, everything went the Mariners’ way on Friday.
“To be honest with you, we dodged a lot of bullets today,” Raley said. The first baseman had a double play on a line drive. Josh Naylor, Leo Rivas Raleigh made a good leap off a line drive up the middle and turned Clement’s ball across the plate into another double play. Randy Arozarena Jumped over the wall in the eighth to rob Clement of a potential home run.
In the long run, the swing-and-miss is still a good thing for a pitching staff, and Seattle hasn’t produced as much as Toronto: The Jays have swung and missed 70 times, compared to the Mariners’ 102.
logan gilbertSeattle’s Game 6 starter, a big swing-and-miss pitcher during the regular season, had the third-highest strikeout rate among pitchers with at least 100 innings, behind only jack wheeler And chris saleHowever, he lasted only three innings in his Game 2 start, producing only five swinging strikes in 58 pitches. The Mariners will hope that the poor effort made up for the start on two days’ rest after throwing two innings of relief in a 15-inning win over Detroit in the ALDS.
same way, trey yeswaysToronto’s rookie starter, who has pitched just 23.1 innings in the big leagues, will try to find his form from his ALDS debut against the Yankees when he struck out 11 in 5.1 hitless innings. The Mariners allowed him five runs in four innings in Game 2, as he walked three times. julio rodriguez Hit a three-run homer in the first inning.
Key Decision: When to move to bullpens
Both managers have used quick hooks with starters — and both have seen those moves backfire in three games in Seattle. In Game 4, Wilson pulled Luis Castillo in the third inning after only 48 pitches, the shortest start of Castillo’s career, and walked his high-leverage relievers early, but gab spear Castillo went on a run, and matt brash Spear threw a wild pitch to allow one of two runs allowed. Wilson doubled in Game 5, pulling bryce miller Even though he still didn’t allow a run after a leadoff single in the fifth. Brash allowed that inherited runner to score, and then Brian Wu allowed another run later.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider’s decision in Game 5 could have been even more questionable, leaving closer Jeff Hoffman Brandon Little in the pennant in the eighth and then seranthony dominguezAnd together they scored five runs to take a 2-1 lead. Hoffman never participated in sports.
Little came on and gave up a home run to Raleigh and then walked the next two batters.
“We talked about it the whole series,” Schneider said after the game. “Little has been one of our best pitchers in big spots. It’s hard to top. Cal’s a really good hitter. I get it, man. After that, you’ve got to calm down and throw strikes too. So that’s part of Little’s game. So are the strikeouts. Again, I trust every single guy on this roster. It’s tough. Nobody feels worse than Little, nobody feels worse than Sear or me right now. Is. But I trust every single guy on this roster. “It didn’t work out today, but we’ve won two games in a row this year.”
This is where we are: The Blue Jays need to win two to reach their first World Series since 1993. The Mariners need one to reach their first World Series. Ohtani and the Dodgers wait. Let’s play some ball.
