Browsing: Mariners

Seattle Mariners star Cal Raleigh met up with a fan who went viral after catching his 61st home run on Tuesday.

Following the Mariners’ win over the Detroit Tigers, the catcher met the fan who wore a shirt that said “Dump 61 Here.” The fan offered to give the ball back to Raleigh, but he told him to keep it. Raleigh also gave him a signed ball and bat.

Raleigh’s 61st home run this year came on the road in Detroit, so the fact that it ended up in the hands of a Mariners fan—let alone one wearing a “Dump 61 Here” shirt—seems like something out of a movie.

After catching the home run, the fan switched to a shirt that read, “Dump 62 Here,” but he wasn’t quite lucky enough to catch another home run from Raleigh.

Raleigh is coming off a historic regular season, hitting the most home runs (60) and the third-most RBI (125) while leading the Mariners to the postseason. He broke the single-season home run records for primary catchers and switch hitters and set a new Mariners franchise record, surpassing Ken Griffey’s 57.

Seattle is hoping to ride the MVP play of Raleigh into a deep postseason run. The Mariners already won their first AL West title since 2001, and they’re now just a win away from advancing to the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2001, when they came up short against the New York Yankees.

They’ll look to close the series out on the road on Wednesday, and they might want to have the fan from Tuesday night’s game there for good luck.

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One of the few Mariners fans in a crowd of Tigers fans in Detroit had a very specific request for Cal Raleigh Tuesday night. Raleigh was happy to oblige.

Raleigh entered the ninth inning of Tuesday’s ALDS Game 3 on a sizzling playoff streak, hitting 5 for 12 with an RBI in two-plus games. But Big Dumper had yet to do what he does best — hit a home run.

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That changed in the ninth. With his Mariners holding a 6-1 lead, Raleigh punctuated an 8-4 win with his first home run of the postseason, a two-run opposite-field shot that cleared the left-field wall.

It was a powerful exclamation point on a game that gave the Mariners a 2-1 series lead to move within a win of the ALCS. But what happened after Raleigh’s contact was even more remarkable.

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The ball bounced into the bullpen and up toward the first row of the outfield stands. There, an opportunistic fan snagged the ball with his glove. Said fan was the only Mariners fan sitting in a sea of Tigers fans.

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And his shirt conveyed the aforementioned specific request. The Mariners teal shirt read “DUMP 61 HERE” in large silver font.

That’s exactly what Raleigh did. After a historic, 60-home run campaign in the regular season, Raleigh dumped his 61st of 2025 directly where the fan asked for it.

And said fan was ready for more. He stripped his shirt to reveal another that read “DUMP 62 HERE.”

That ask, alas, proved to be too much. Raleigh didn’t have another at-bat. Maybe our hero will have another shot in Wednesday’s Game 4.

In the meantime, he’ll surely settle for home run ball No. 61, a meet-and-greet with Raleigh and an autographed bat from his hero.

What a night for Raleigh and one of his biggest fans.

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The Mariners took a 2-1 lead in the American League Division Series over the Detroit Tigers with a 8-4 win on the road Tuesday, energizing Seattle and MLB fans with an impressive offensive showing.

Cal Raleigh capped off his stellar Game 3 performance with a two-run, 391-foot homer in the top of the ninth, sealing the Mariners’ victory. Raleigh finished 2-for-4 at the plate with three RBI, finishing with a .462 batting average.

J.P. Crawford added two RBI, going a perfect 2-for-2 with a home run and a .333 batting average. Eugenio Suárez chipped in with a homer and an RBI, while Randy Arozarena added another RBI.

Raleigh and the Mariners’ offense electrified MLB fans as Seattle took Game 3 on the road against the Tigers.

Mariners ace Logan Gilbert set the tone with a dominant performance, posting a 1.50 ERA over six innings while allowing four hits and one earned run with seven strikeouts.

Caleb Ferguson stepped in to close the game in the bottom of the ninth with the Mariners holding an 8-1 lead but struggled, allowing three earned runs on 19 pitches as fans looked on in disbelief. Andrés Muñoz then entered to secure the final outs and seal the win for Seattle.

Detroit starter Jack Flaherty, meanwhile, struggled to find a rhythm against Seattle’s lineup, lasting 3 1/3 innings and giving up four hits, three earned runs and a home run with six strikeouts. Reliever Brant Hurter surrendered a solo homer to Crawford, and closer Brenan Hanifee gave up a two-run shot to Raleigh.

The winner of the ALDS between the No. 2 Mariners and No. 6 Tigers will advance to face the winner of the series between the No. 4 New York Yankees and No. 1 Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series.

Seattle will play Game 4 in Detroit on Wednesday, with first pitch scheduled for 3:08 p.m. ET.

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DETROIT — The Mariners responded in a big way on Sunday night with a tense, 3-2 win in Game 2 of this American League Division Series, and now the Tigers will attempt to respond when returning home for the first time in more than two weeks.

Those are the stakes in front of Seattle and Detroit as this series shifts to Comerica Park for Games 3 and 4, both of which are now guaranteed to be played after it was evened at 1-1 on Sunday. If they split those two, a winner-take-all Game 5 would follow back in Seattle on Friday.

“They’re not going to like us over there,†said Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez, who delivered the game-winning hit in the eighth inning in Game 2. “They’re going to root for their team. They’re going to root for the Tigers, just like the Mariners here, our fans were rooting for us. And just go out there and play baseball. That’s a mindset.â€

Added Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, after Game 2: “Obviously it’s a frustrating loss because every loss at this time of year is frustrating, but I’m obviously proud of our group and excited to get home.â€

In the Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format, teams to earn a split of the first two games on the road, before returning home for Games 3-4, have advanced 30 of 48 times (62.5%).

When is the game and how can I watch it?
Game 3 between the Mariners and Tigers will be at 4:08 p.m. ET/1:08 p.m. PT on FS1. All series are available in the US on MLB.TV with authentication to a participating Pay TV provider. Games also are available live internationally, although not in Canada. Sportsnet is MLB’s exclusive English language broadcaster in Canada for every Postseason game, while TVA Sports will be covering the entire AL Postseason and the World Series in French and Broadcaster RDS will cover the entire NL Postseason in French.

Who are the starting pitchers?
Mariners: Logan Gilbert (6-4, 3.44 ERA) will make his much-anticipated playoff debut in 2025, after being pushed back to Game 3 as part of a series of matchup-dictated decisions, as the Mariners figured he gave them their best chance on the road over George Kirby and Luis Castillo, who started Games 1 and 2, respectively. That said, Gilbert has also had his hiccups on the road (4.74 ERA) albeit less pronounced than the rest of Seattleâ€s starters — other than Bryan Woo (3.40 ERA), who was not included on the Mariners†ALDS roster due to pectoral inflammation.

This will be Gilbertâ€s third start against Detroit this season. On April 1, he surrendered three runs in five innings with 10 strikeouts. On July 13 at Comerica Park, he Kâ€d nine and allowed two unearned runs in 5 1/3 innings before running into an inflated pitch count.

When Flaherty is on, heâ€s a tough matchup for power hitters, locating his fastball at the bottom of the strike zone and playing his slider off it. He struck out seven Mariners over five innings on July 13 at Comerica Park, giving up solo homers to Rodríguez and Randy Arozarena off his fastball and curveball respectively. He allowed only one Guardians home run over 19 2/3 innings across his last three starts, but the Mâ€s provide another challenge.

Flahertyâ€s numbers were better all around when pitching on four days†rest, as he will be here. He had a 3.09 ERA, a .210 batting average allowed and 11.5 K/9 in those situations, compared with a 5.42 ERA, a .258 average and 9.3 K/9 on five days’ rest, which he wouldâ€ve had pitching Game 4.

What are the starting lineups?
Mariners: Seattle manager Dan Wilson regularly deployed a more consistent daily lineup throughout the regular season, and that was particularly true once the entire roster came together after the Trade Deadline. And that has remained in the playoffs, with the only factors changing based on the opposing pitcherâ€s handedness. In that context, he’s rolling out a lineup nearly identical to what he used in Game 1 with Detroit turning to another righty, only flipping Jorge Polanco (cleanup) and Josh Naylor (fifth).

Tigers: While Comerica Parkâ€s spacious outfield lends itself to Wenceel Pérez in right field, the Tigers need offense and aren’t willing to sacrifice the bats of Kerry Carpenter — who has held his own in right — or Colt Keith.

How will the bullpens line up after the starter?
Mariners: As with Detroit, the off-day Monday comes as a huge help for a Seattle bullpen that had to cover 10 1/3 innings across the first two games of the series. All four of the Mariners†leverage arms — Eduard Bazardo, Gabe Speier, Matt Brash and Andrés Muñoz — worked back-to-back days in Seattle over the weekend, and if the first two games are any indication, Wilson is going to continue to ask that quartet to handle nearly all of the workload in close games.

Tigers: Mondayâ€s off-day gives Detroitâ€s bullpen a chance to reset after a fairly heavy workload, including seven innings in Game 1. Getting Kyle Finnegan a day off is potentially big, allowing him to be available for the formidable center of the Mariners’ lineup in the middle to late innings.

If/when Naylor leaves, he will be placed on the paternity list, which allows for a player to miss up to three days — and the Mariners can replace him on their roster during the absence with one of their 11 members of their taxi squad.

If that impacts Game 4, when the Tigers will start right-hander Casey Mize, the Mariners would likely start lefty-hitting Luke Raley at first base, with righty-hitting Ben Williamson as the first reinforcement off the bench. Williamson, who was included on Seattleâ€s ALDS roster, exclusively plays third base, but the Mariners would then move Suárez from third to first, as heâ€s been working out at the position all week with infield coach Perry Hill.

Who is hot and who is not?
Mariners: Rodríguez has returned to postseason play on a heater, following his three-hit night in Game 1 with the go-ahead double in the bottom of the eighth to power the Mariners to the win in Game 2. In doing so, he stretched his postseason streak of games with an extra-base hit to five, the longest in Mariners history and the longest by a player under the age of 25. Raleigh also totaled four hits across the first two games of the series, while Polanco became the fourth player in Mariners history to hit two home runs in a playoff game in Game 2. On the other side, Naylor and Suárez are a combined 0-for-16.

Tigers: Báez is hitting .316 in five postseason games, while Torres was the only Tiger to record hits in both games in Seattle, including a double in Game 1. Dingler has started the postseason 1-for-18 with eight strikeouts, though that one hit was a loud one — a go-ahead home run in the deciding Game 3 of the Wild Card Series.

Anything else fans might want to know?
Mariners: The Mariners went 2-2 on the road during their most recent playoff run in 2022, sweeping the AL Wild Card Series in Toronto then dropping Games 1 and 2 of the ALDS in Houston toward an eventual sweep. In 2025, they experienced pronounced struggles on the road from August into September, including a 3-13 stretch that nearly spiraled their season. But they rebounded to go 5-1 on their final road trip through Kansas City and Houston, which helped them win the AL West.

Tigers: The Tigers are set to play their first game in front of a home crowd since Sept. 21, after finishing the regular season with back-to-back road series, then going to Cleveland for the Wild Card Series before coming to Seattle for the first two games of the ALDS. Last season, Detroit went 1-2 in the postseason at Comerica Park; this season, their 46-35 record at home was tied for sixth-best in the AL.

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  Alden GonzalezOct 5, 2025, 11:53 PM ET

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  ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.

SEATTLE — Another sold-out crowd went into its customary “Ju-lio!” chant in Sunday’s eighth inning, but this one felt louder, deeper, more desperate, almost as if you could feel the anticipation that comes from 24 years without a playoff home win. Julio Rodriguez, the Seattle Mariners’ beloved center fielder and one of the sport’s best producers over these past three months, responded by hitting the line drive that drove in Cal Raleigh for the go-ahead run, then arrived at second base, punched the frigid October air, flexed for 47,371 T-Mobile Park fans and, mostly, fed off their energy.

“I kind of looked around a little bit,” Rodriguez said after powering a nail-biting, 3-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers. “I could see everybody jumping around, and that made me feel really good. It was an awesome moment.”

Facing Tigers ace Tarik Skubal with the possibility of going to Detroit down 2-0 in this best-of-five American League Division Series, the Mariners rode an impressive pitching performance and two Jorge Polanco home runs to take a two-run lead heading into the eighth inning. And after Josh Naylor’s error paved the way for Spencer Torkelson’s tying double, the Mariners, one of baseball’s hottest teams, responded yet again. Raleigh hit a one-out double off Kyle Finnegan, Rodriguez did the same, and Andres Munoz, asked to take down two innings for the first time in six years a night earlier, closed it out in the ninth.

For the first time since Oct. 15, 2001, the people of Seattle could witness a playoff win firsthand.

“For us, it means a lot to give the fans what they deserve,” Munoz said. “I’ve been here for a little bit, and they deserve this.”

Skubal knows the Mariners’ struggle well. Long before solidifying himself as the AL’s greatest pitcher, Skubal pitched at nearby Seattle University, the only Division-I school that would offer him a scholarship. As a way to help pay it forward, and inspire kids hoping to follow his path of going from a ninth-round pick to a Cy Young, Skubal invited the entire Seattle University baseball team to watch him pitch.

The Tigers were coming off a gritty effort in which they utilized seven pitchers in 11 innings to practically steal Game 1. Skubal, five days removed from a 14-strikeout masterpiece in the wild-card round, hoped to put his Tigers on the brink. But Polanco got in his way. In the fourth, Skubal left a 2-0 slider out over the plate and Polanco lined it into the Mariners’ left-center-field bullpen, resulting in the first home run Skubal had allowed on that pitch since May 20. In the sixth, Skubal got ahead in the count, 1-2, but Polanco worked it full, then got a middle-middle sinker at 99 mph and sent it 369 feet.

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“It’s a good at-bat,” Skubal said. “Two good swings on baseballs, and that’s how I give up runs tonight. I thought my stuff was really, really good. I thought my execution was great. But that’s the game of baseball.”

Polanco navigated the worst season of his career in 2024, putting up a .651 OPS after the Mariners acquired him from the Minnesota Twins. He spent a lot of that year playing hurt, ultimately undergoing surgery on his left knee shortly after the team’s season ended. The Mariners, scrambling for infield help in February, brought him back on a deal that would pay him $7 million in 2025 and saw him morph into one of their best performers down the stretch.

From the start of July to the end of September, Polanco slashed .282/.348/.551, ranking 11th in the majors in OPS. And when the Mariners needed a win most, he became the first player in four years — Paul Goldschmidt on Aug. 25, 2021 — to hit two home runs in one game against Skubal.

“He’s such a good baseball player,” Rodriguez said. “He’s a grinder. All year long he’s been having great at-bats, coming clutch in so many situations. And today, to have hit two homers against the best pitcher in the game right now — it’s awesome. There is not enough words to describe what he means to the team.”

Luis Castillo, a man known to feed off the home crowd in Seattle, got the Game 2 assignment and needed 51 pitches to record the Seattle’s first six outs. A short start, coming off a night in which the Mariners taxed their bullpen, seemed likely. But Castillo completed the third and fourth innings with just 18 pitches. In the fifth, Mariners manager Dan Wilson confronted the same situation that presented itself the night before: fifth inning, traffic on the bases, left-handed hitter Kerry Carpenter up, lefty reliever Gabe Speier warming in the bullpen.

“Déjà vu all over again,” Wilson said.

Twenty-four hours earlier, Wilson entrusted George Kirby to face Carpenter a third time and watched him surrender a two-run homer. This time, he turned to Speier, who struck out Carpenter to end the fifth, then cruised through the middle of the Mariners’ lineup in the sixth. Eduard Bazardo followed by stranding a runner in the seventh. Matt Brash seemed primed to do the same in the top of the eighth, but Riley Greene’s grounder, a potential inning-ending double play, ricocheted off Naylor’s glove at first base. Five pitches later, Torkelson deflated an entire city with a tying double down the right-field line.

“Just keep going,” Raleigh recalled thinking. “In the playoffs, you have to have a short memory.”

Raleigh, the franchise catcher coming off a historic 60-homer season, responded by turning on a splitter out over the plate and driving it toward the right-field wall. Rodriguez, arguably the game’s best player since the All-Star break, followed by turning on another splitter in almost the exact location and lining it down the left-field line, bringing Seattle back to life.

“It was awesome,” Rodriguez said. “These are things I dreamed of as a kid.”

Mariners fans waited 21 years after that 116-win 2001 season for their baseball team to get back into the playoffs. When they finally did, in 2022, the Mariners won back-to-back wild-card games in Toronto but suffered two brutal ALDS losses in Houston, came back home, played 18 innings and lost 1-0, ending a promising season. The next few years were mired by late-season collapses that left them out of the playoffs, which only added more pressure on a 2025 team widely considered the most talented of this generation. Raleigh called getting that first home playoff win “a nice weight to get off the guy’s shoulders.”

The Mariners hope for several more.

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SEATTLE — Shortly after Jorge Polancoâ€s second home run of the game off reigning AL Cy Young award winner Tarik Skubal, a chant broke out from a smattering of Mariners fans at T-Mobile Park.

It was resemblant of the familiar soccer chant, “Olé, Olé, Olé″, except the Seattle supporters were repeating Polancoâ€s first name after he put the Mariners up 2-0 en route to a 3-2 win against the Detroit Tigers in Game 2 of their AL Division Series to even the series.

“Jorge, Jorge, Jorge†reverberated throughout the ballpark, which was occupied by a whopping 47,371 patrons that witnessed Seattleâ€s first home playoff win since Oct. 15, 2001, against Cleveland.

“Well, when weâ€ve got a crowd like that thatâ€s supporting us,†Polanco said, “itâ€s easy for us to go out there.â€

Despite the magnitude of his performance — Polanco became the fourth Mariners player with a multi-homer game in the postseason, joining Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez and Jay Buhner, who all accomplished the feat in 1995 —- he described an approach in the batterâ€s box that perfectly encapsulated his calm demeanor.

“I came up there just trying to get a good pitch to hit,†Polanco said. “Just hit to the middle of the field and put it straight on.â€

That method worked out in a big way for Polanco, just as it often did throughout a bounce-back season. Nearly a year ago to the date, Polanco underwent surgery to repair his left patellar tendon. And in November, the Mariners declined his $12 million option, only to bring him back for the discounted rate of $7 million for one season.

Last year, Polanco played through injury and put up pedestrian numbers relative to his career averages. In his first season in Seattle, Polanco hit just .213 with a career-low .651 OPS.

“We all knew what he was going through, and we all had his back,†teammate Julio Rodríguez said. “We also knew how much he cared about the team last year. And just to see him, like, kind of going through and showing up every single day, he inspired me a lot, Iâ€ve got to say, just in the way that he went about his business. You could tell how much he actually wanted to play.â€

In 2025, though, Polanco hasnâ€t just been available, but impactful. He mashed 26 home runs this season, the second-most of his career, and started playing the field more frequently in the second half of the season, too.

“Thatâ€s why Iâ€m so happy for him this year, that heâ€s been more healthy, more on the field,†Rodríguez said. “I know heâ€s put in a lot of work, and Iâ€m so, so happy that heâ€s having success again and enjoying the game of baseball that he loves.â€

Adoration was in the air for Polanco all evening, and especially following each of his home runs off Skubal. The first long ball came on a slider, and the latter off Skubalâ€s scintillating sinker – not that Polanco was sitting on either pitch.

“I didnâ€t know what was coming,†Polanco said. “Like I said, I just have a good approach, stay to the middle so I can recognize the second that it starts.â€

Polancoâ€s heroics were critical to the Mariners not completely squandering their home-field advantage, as they will instead head to Detroit needing to take just one of two games to force a winner-take-all Game 5 back in Seattle.

As much as players like Rodríguez, AL MVP candidate Cal Raleigh and other Mariners have drawn ample attention this season, it was Polanco who stood a cut above like only a handful of franchise greats have in postseason play.

“All I can say is Iâ€m really happy that heâ€s our teammate and heâ€s playing for us,†Rodríguez said. “He can do what he did tonight for us, and itâ€s pretty unbelievable.â€

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As the ball jumped off Spencer Torkelsonâ€s bat and raced down the right-field line, it looked like a special night — and season — in Seattle might slip away.

The Tigers†first baseman laced a double to score two runs and tie the game in the top of the eighth inning of ALDS Game 2, a dramatic counter to the Mariners†efforts to record the final few outs required to even the series after they dropped Game 1 in frustrating fashion in 11 innings. With Torkelsonâ€s swing, a 2-0 lead earned against the mighty Tarik Skubal and secured through seven innings vanished, and the prospect of losing both home games to open the ALDS started to creep into the minds of Mariners fans long conditioned to expect the worst.

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But the postseason is all about how teams respond after absorbing a devastating blow. So once reliever Matt Brash kept the game tied at two heading to the bottom of the eighth, the stage was set for Seattleâ€s two biggest stars to deliver a rebuttal.

For the second straight night, Tigers reliever Kyle Finnegan entered for the bottom of the eighth in a 2-2 game with the top of the Mariners†lineup scheduled to hit. In Game 1, Finnegan surrendered a two-out single to Cal Raleigh but struck out Julio Rodríguez with a nasty splitter to end the frame and keep the game deadlocked. In Game 2, Raleigh and Rodríguez found the upper hand.

Following a Randy Arozarena strikeout leading off the inning, Raleigh smoked a first-pitch splitter from Finnegan into the right-field corner for a double. The ball came off Raleighâ€s bat at 110.9 mph — the hardest-hit ball of the evening for either team — and restored optimism in the stadium that, unlike the night before, this close contest might fall in the home teamâ€s favor.

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Two pitches later, amid a chorus of “JULIO†chants, Rodríguez did his part to ensure that would be the case. He ripped a double to left field to drive in Raleigh and nab a 3-2 lead that would hold for an enormous victory — the franchiseâ€s first home postseason win since Game 5 of the 2001 ALDS.

“That’s kind of the nature of playoff baseball,†manager Dan Wilson said afterward. “There’s back-and-forth. There’s momentum shifts. I gave our guys a ton of credit. This was a bounce-back game for us, and they did just that. And to lose the lead late like that and to come right back and score a run was huge. I thought those at-bats by Julio and Cal were tremendous and just a huge momentum shift back to our dugout.â€

Raleigh and Rodríguez collaborating on the crucial go-ahead run represented a brilliant encore to what the top-tier duo accomplished in Game 1, when they notched three hits apiece and Rodríguez drove in both Mariners runs, including a solo homer.

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But the problem for Seattle in the opener was that those contributions accounted for almost the entirety of the offense — batters not named Rodríguez or Raleigh combined to go 0-for-28 with two walks — and that proved woefully insufficient in the extra-innings defeat. If the Mariners were going to bounce back from that difficult Game 1 loss, other bats needed to step up in Game 2, particularly against a pitcher of Skubalâ€s caliber.

To say Jorge Polanco merely “stepped up†would be quite the understatement.

It didnâ€t happen right away. Facing Skubal in the first inning, Polanco swung at a first-pitch fastball up-and-in and popped out harmlessly to third base to end the inning. But in the bottom of the fourth, Polanco found himself in a favorable 2-0 count after Skubal sailed a first-pitch fastball outside and couldnâ€t quite land a changeup at the bottom of the zone. Skubalâ€s next pitch was a slider over the heart of the plate, and Polanco didnâ€t miss it, scalding a line drive to left field that snuck over the wall and into the Mariners†bullpen for a 1-0 lead.

That swing alone felt monumental, considering the guy on the mound, but Polanco wasnâ€t finished. Skubal continued to carve through the rest of Seattle’s lineup until a third encounter with Polanco in the seventh inning. After falling into a 1-2 hole, Polanco carefully watched two enticing changeups fall below the zone to work a full count. Rather than try a third changeup or the slider that Polanco crushed in the previous at-bat, Skubal came with the heat — and Polanco was ready. Skubal unleashed a sinker at 99.1 mph, but it was right down the middle, and Polanco pulverized it, sending another ball soaring beyond the left-field fence for his second home run of the game and a 2-0 Mariners lead.

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“He’s such a good baseball player,†Rodríguez said postgame of Polanco. “He’s a grinder. All year long, he’s been having great at-bats, coming up clutch in so many situations. And today, to have hit two homers against the best pitcher in the game right now, it’s awesome. There are not enough words to describe what he means to the team.â€

Skubal recalibrated after Polancoâ€s second blast to record four more outs and complete seven frames. Against the rest of Seattleâ€s lineup, he looked like his dominant self, racking up nine strikeouts. And for Skubalâ€s two missteps to come against the same hitter marked an ultra-rare sequence for the spectacular left-hander: It was the first time in more than four years that he had allowed two home runs to one batter in the same game. In other words, since Skubal became thisversion of Tarik Skubal, no batter had done what Polanco did Sunday.

“You know, you don’t see the same guy get good swings against Tarik very often,†Tigers manager A.J. Hinch conceded afterward.

With some breathing room afforded by Polancoâ€s solo shots off Skubal, a trio of Mariners pitchers combined to blank Detroitâ€s bats through the first seven frames. Veteran right-hander Luis Castillo got the start and overcame a few lapses in command to keep Detroit off the board in the early going. Castillo did not allow a hit until there were two outs in the fifth inning, at which point he made way for left-hander Gabe Speier, who struck out the dangerous Kerry Carpenter with runners on the corners to end the threat.

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Speier returned to the mound to retire the side in order in the sixth before handing the ball to another unheralded yet vital bullpen arm, Eduard Bazardo, who tossed a scoreless seventh. After Detroit tied the game vs. Brash in the eighth, closer Andres Muñoz slammed the door with a perfect ninth just 24 hours after he recorded six high-stress outs in Game 1.

Between the Tigers’ extra-innings triumph in the series opener and the daunting challenge of facing Skubal in Game 2, Detroit seemed to deal a swift, seismic blow to Seattleâ€s morale. But thanks to Polancoâ€s stunning performance and Raleigh and Rodríguezâ€s late rally, suddenly, this series has become a best-of-three.

The action now shifts to Detroit for Game 3 on Tuesday, marking a return home for the Tigers after more than two weeks on the road. Itâ€s safe to say the vibes will be drastically different than the last time the Tigers played at Comerica Park, when Detroit finished its regular-season home slate with seven consecutive losses, an ugly skid that contributed to its ceding the AL Central title to Cleveland.

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While that historic collapse remains part of this Tigers teamâ€s story, they can make it a footnote with a memorable run deep into October. Game 2 marked a disappointing outcome for Detroit but also a hard-fought defeat against a quality opponent looking to write its own postseason story.

If the nature of these first two games is any indication, whichever club emerges victorious from this series is going to remember it for a long time.

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SEATTLE — In his first playoff game as a big league manager, Dan Wilson stuck with his starter and got stung.

Less than 24 hours later, he found himself right back in the same situation. This time, the script had a different ending, in what ended up as a 3-2 Mariners win over the Tigers on Sunday to level the American League Division Series at one game apiece.

“Itâ€s almost deja vu all over again,†the Mariners skipper quipped after it was all said and done.

For the second straight night, the Mariners took a 1-0 lead on a home run in the bottom of the fourth inning. For the second straight night, Seattleâ€s starter danced around traffic for four frames before running into another jam with two outs and Detroitâ€s Kerry Carpenter — who slugged 23 of his 26 regular-season home runs against right-handers — due up in the fifth. For the second straight night, Gabe Speier was ready and warm in the Seattle bullpen.

Saturday, Wilson opted to keep George Kirby in the game to finish the frame, and Carpenter made him pay with a two-run homer. Sunday, with runners on the corners, he pressed the other button.

“They just called down and said ‘Get ready,†and I assumed it was for Carpenter,†Speier said. “Thatâ€s it. When they tell me to get ready, I just go.â€

So with Luis Castillo on 85 pitches and only one hit allowed, Wilson gave him the quick hook. Speier entered, jumped ahead 0-2 on back-to-back sinkers and a pitch later blew a 96.1 mph four-seamer straight past Carpenterâ€s bat to get the Mariners back in the dugout.

“Gabe came in … [and] just continued to pound the zone as he does and really attack, and to be able to do it in that situation again, get us back in the dugout, keep that lead,†Wilson said.

Speier said that most of his direction for how his usage will go on any given night comes early in the game, from bullpen coach Tony Arnerich. Sunday, the message was simple: Be ready early.

The Tigers rolled with the same lineup as they had in Game 1, with Carpenter and Riley Greene as back-to-back lefties in the second and third slots, respectively. Lefty Colt Keith hit fifth; Saturday, as soon as a left-hander entered the game to pitch, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch pulled him for a righty.

There was some thought that had Wilson gone to Speier on Saturday, it would have forced Hinch to pull his No. 2 hitter midway through the game. Sunday, that proved to be false hope, but it worked out anyway. Carpenter came up once more — against Matt Brash — and struck out looking.

“I chose to keep Carp in the game for the fact that we had so much game left, rather than make that move,†Hinch said. “… I thought he had some good swings. But obviously Speier got him tonight.â€

There was a ton of game left, indeed, and while the move to Speier worked perfectly in the short term, it led to a new quandary for Wilson: Twelve more outs to cover in a must-win game with none of his high-leverage arms fresh, after all had been used in Saturdayâ€s 11-inning gut punch of a loss.

It wouldnâ€t be a problem.

Speier had started the train of back-to-backs, and pushed it to full-speed by going back out for another inning of work in the sixth, striking out Green and retiring Spencer Torkelson and pinch-hitter Wenceel Pérez for his second four-out night in a row.

“I feel good,†Speier said. “A little sore today, but the adrenaline, the atmosphere, it puts it in the back of your mind and lets you go out and compete.â€

From there, Wilson rolled out the rest of his top guys. Eduard Bazardo, whose three-pitch workload Saturday was the lightest of the groupâ€s, threw 19 in the seventh. Brash had the toughest time, though a crucial error at first by Josh Naylor made it so only one of the two runs he allowed was earned. But because of Julio Rodríguezâ€s heroics in the very next frame, he ended up earning the win.

Andrés Muñoz, a day after pitching two full innings for the first time in six years, slammed the door in the ninth to earn his first career postseason save.

Now, the Mariners are headed to Detroit in a tied series, despite only getting a combined 9 2/3 innings from their starters.

“All year, the bullpen has been phenomenal, and that gives us a lot more confidence,†Castillo said, via translator Freddy Llanos. “We know that when we exit the game, these guys are going to do a great job, come out and finish the game for us.â€

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SEATTLE — As the Mariners take on hostile territory for the first time this postseason, itâ€ll be Logan Gilbert’s job to quiet a raucous Detroit crowd.

Ahead of Game 2 of the ALDS against the Tigers, Seattle manager Dan Wilson confirmed what all signs had pointed to since he announced that George Kirby would start Game 1, followed by Luis Castillo: Gilbert, the Mariners†Opening Day starter, will get the ball to start Game 3. Heâ€ll do so in a tied series after Sunday night’s 3-2 win in Game 2, with the chance to steal a win on the road just as the Tigers stole a win in Seattle.

What does Wilson expect to see Tuesday?

“Logan Gilbert,†he said. “What heâ€s done for us this year.â€

After leading the Major Leagues in innings in 2024, this season has been more of an up-and-down one for Gilbert, who went on the injured list for the first time in his career in April with a flexor strain in his right elbow and didnâ€t return until mid-June. Since returning to action, heâ€s posted a 3.75 ERA with 129 strikeouts compared to 25 walks. He finished his season with 173 strikeouts in 131 innings, with his 11.89 K/9 leading all pitchers (min. 120 innings).

And while Gilbert has posted stark home/away splits — albeit less pronounced than the rest of Seattleâ€s rotation — with a 4.74 ERA in 12 starts away from T-Mobile Park compared to a 2.24 ERA in 13 starts at home, he logged a quality start in three of his final four road starts of the regular season.

This will be Gilbertâ€s third start against Detroit this season. On April 1, he allowed three runs in five innings while striking 10. On July 13 at Comerica Park, he Kâ€d nine and allowed two unearned runs in 5 1/3 innings before running into an inflated pitch count.

“I think he matches up well against this club,†Wilson said. “Obviously the fastball, but more the split, the slider, you know, really good secondary options against this club, and I think it stacks up pretty well.â€

That pitch count — and how many outs Gilbert can get within it — will be a point to watch Tuesday. After getting at least one out in the seventh inning in 17 of his 33 starts in 2024, heâ€s only done so three times this season, and he hasnâ€t thrown seven complete frames since Opening Day against the Athletics.

Wilson had to use all of his high-leverage relievers on Saturday in Game 1, after George Kirby exited after five innings of work. Sunday was a similar story, with Luis Castillo going 4 2/3 innings and the high-leverage quartet of Gabe Speier, Eduard Bazardo, Matt Brash and Andrés Muñoz all working back-to-back days to see out a win in Game 2.

“This is the time of year where we have to be available,†Wilson said. “And these guys want the ball, and they want to be in those situations.â€

Another factor in play for Game 3 is the status of Josh Naylor, whose wife is in Arizona expecting the birth of their first child. Naylor has gone 0-for-8 with a walk in the first games of the series.

If Naylor has to miss Game 3, the Mariners have rookie third baseman Ben Williamson on the roster to fill in with a spot start. Eugenio Suárez, who played four innings at first base across two games in early September, has been taking reps there — and played there in the Mariners†pre-ALDS scrimmages — and could move across the diamond, leaving Williamson, who started 79 games at the hot corner after getting his callup in April, to start at third.

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SEATTLE — They are the faces of the franchise and on whose shoulders the Mariners have staked their present and future. Players who are already on their way to superstardom and who could reach heights of perpetuity in this region if this playoff run ends with a parade.

Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez, the blue-collar catcher who crushes 60 homers and the five-tool center fielder who loves the spotlight. They make a dynamic duo at the top of the Mariners†lineup, and they delivered in a huge way on Sunday night.

Raleigh yanked a double into the right-field corner with one out in the eighth inning, then Rodríguez positioned him to race home by going full alley-oop with a double of his own, this one into left. Those back-to-back knocks answered a tense Tigers rally a half-inning prior and lifted Seattle to a 3-2 victory in Game 2 of this American League Division Series that, by all measures, was in must-win territory.

“This was a bounce-back game for us,†Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “And they did just that.â€

On an emotional level, it was the Mariners†first postseason win at T-Mobile Park since Game 5 of the 2001 ALDS — the longevity of which quite literally brought fans to tears.

Rodríguez has embraced that emotion, speaking loftily on the Mariners†ambitions despite their organizational lack of experience on this stage. And he could be the perfect embodiment to changing that narrative — a player whoâ€s been in the big leagues for four years now, whoâ€s off to a promising career but also whoâ€s mostly been defined by potential rather than proven.

Which made Sunday arguably his biggest moment yet.

“This has to be No. 1,†Rodríguez said. “We haven’t had a time like this here in a while, so being able to deliver a win tonight as a team I think was really special for me. Just to see the fans and the way they got going, it was very special. I’m always going to hold that memory in my heart.â€

After taking a gut-punch defeat in Game 1, the Mariners have evened this series as it shifts to Detroit — and more critically, they did do so against Detroitâ€s Tarik Skubal, making them the first team to defeat the all-world ace three times in the same season.

Had they gone down 2-0, even in a best-case scenario, they wouldâ€ve had to win both Games 3 and 4 at Comerica Park just to force a winner-take-all Game 5 back in Seattle, where theyâ€d again face Skubal. That possibility still looms, even with a split in Detroit. But the Mariners proved to both the Tigers — and themselves — that they can punch back.

“More importantly, to come and answer back as a team,†Rodríguez said. “I felt like Cal got it going right there, and I was really happy to be able to follow through on that.â€

Essentially, Rodriguez and the Mariners landed the final blow in Game 2.

Seattle held Detroit scoreless all night until the eighth inning, when the Tigers tied the game with a two-run, inside-out double that Spencer Torkelson sliced down the right-field line, off the wall in foul territory and into No Manâ€s Land. That came immediately after Matt Brash walked leadoff man Gleyber Torres then had to work around an uncharacteristic error from first baseman Josh Naylor that put the tying run on base.

With momentum fleeting, the Mariners were cognizant — and confident — when it was their turn to respond, having knocked Skubal out of the game at that point. And when the Tigers called on reliever Kyle Finnegan, Raleigh and Rodríguez immediately answered.

“It’s not difficult,†Rodríguez said. “I feel like we’re in it to win it, you know? And it doesn’t matter what really happened — if they take the lead or anything like that, they tie it up. We know what the goal is about the game, and there is not really time to feel sorry about what happens. … Just stay in the moment.â€

Among five arms, the Mariners surrendered just three hits — their fewest in franchise history in a postseason game — and were anchored by their Rock, whose nickname is attached to that moniker.

Luis Castillo labored early, needing 51 pitches to clear the second inning, but settled in after, with just nine pitches in the third and fourth each. His task wasnâ€t necessarily to out-pitch or even outlast Skubal, but rather, keep Seattleâ€s offense within striking distance. And he delivered, surrendering zero hits through his first 18 batters, before Torres punched an opposite-field single off him with two outs in the fifth.

That knock, which came after Castilloâ€s fourth walk, put runners on the corners and Wilson in a nearly identical spot to the decision that proved his most costly in Game 1 — with his starter at a palatable pitch count (85), but power threat Kerry Carpenter on deck.

This time, however, Wilson turned to leverage lefty Gabe Speier, who was warming the night prior when George Kirby served up a decisive, two-run homer. And this time, Speier bailed the Mariners out of the jam with a massive strikeout.

Just after, Castillo was seen on the dugoutâ€s top step clenching his right fist — the gesture synonymous with his nickname, La Piedra, which is Spanish for the rock.

“When Speier came out there, I stayed because I wanted to show my support, and especially in these moments right now,†Castillo said through an interpreter. “That’s the best you can do, is try and show your support. And it doesn’t matter who comes out there, you kind of know they’re going to get the job done.â€

Speier was the first in another extended line of relief, the caboose of which was Andrés Muñoz, who — one day after pitching two innings, his most in his Mariners career — locked down his first postseason save.

The two-time All-Star ensured that there would be no counter act, and that if the Mariners eventually face elimination in this ALDS, it wouldnâ€t happen on a night when their backs were against the wall.

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