Baseball’s majesty and misery are almost always intertwined. And in a stunning eighth inning in an unforgettable Game 5 of the American League Championship Series, they were inseparable.
For several pulsating minutes at T-Mobile Park, the fates of the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners hung first on a crucial decision by a manager, and then in the air for several tantalizing seconds as Cal Raleigh’s pop fly ball drifted into the left field stands, and then finally when Eugenio Suárez’s grand slam settled into the right field stands.
A short burst of bedlam flipped the game from the Blue Jays’ win column to the Mariners’, a 6-2 victory that pushed them to a brink they’ve never encountered: One win away from their first World Series appearance in the franchise’s nearly 50-year history.
And it shoved a motley cast of characters front and center. Games 6 and 7 in Toronto may usher new narratives and different heroes and goats. But this wild night belonged to them.
Eugenio Suárez: Nice guys finish first
He’s played for four franchises, beloved so much in Seattle that the Mariners had to bring him back in a special season that certainly merited some trade-deadline punch.
And so when Suárez started the scoring with a second-inning homer, and ended it depositing Seranthony Dominguez’s 98-mph heater into the right field seats, the joy could be shared from Seattle to Arizona, Cincinnati to Detroit.
‘As good a player as Geno is, he’s an even better person. I think that’s what shines through with Geno,’ a grateful Mariners manager Dan Wilson told reporters after Game 5. ‘You can’t tell if he’s in a slump, you can’t tell what he’s going through, because he’s always picking everybody else up. He’s just a selfless player, and that’s why everybody in the clubhouse roots for Geno so hard, because he just doesn’t think about himself at all.
‘Just being able to give Geno a hug after the game and knowing how good it feels for him to do what he did today. He’s just an incredible person, an incredible leader, an incredible ball player.’
Who hit 49 home runs this season between Seattle and Arizona. And has gone to the postseason with three franchises – but never a World Series.
Given how he’s now virtually canonized in the Pacific Northwest, it would be appropriate if he and the Mariners crossed that threshold together.
‘For me, it’s very special. Emotions are always high,’ says Suárez postgame. ‘The crowd keeps us on the field, keeps us in the fight. They want all day to expect something good for us. And I’ve been waiting for games like this my whole career. Today, I had it.
‘Today, I had it in front of our crowd, in front of my family, my two daughters, my wife, and the moment is very special right now. My emotions right now, it’s very high. I feel so grateful.’
Cal Raleigh: Big Game Dumper
The MVP votes are already tallied, and we’ll find out next month if Raleigh outpointed Aaron Judge at the ballot box. Postseason performances aren’t factored in – instead, legacies are burnished or diminished.
And Raleigh is well on his way to an October platform blowing up his spot even more.
Seattle’s won three games in this ALCS and Raleigh’s homered in two of them, the first a game-tying shot off Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman in Game 1.
The second?
‘It felt like Cal’s ball was in the air for, like, an hour,’ Wilson said of Raleigh’s sky ball in the bottom of the eighth inning, Mariners trailing 2-1, just six outs from a sweep in Seattle that would have made their pennant-winning task perhaps insurmountable.
When it came down, the score was tied 2-2, a chaotic eighth inning was only beginning and Raleigh further verified his greatness on a bigger stage.
No, he’s not just the guy with the funny nickname who somehow pumped 60 homers from the catcher position, and as a switch-hitter, no less. He’s added four more bombs to the total in 10 playoff games, a presence that consistently impacts the opponent more than anyone in Seattle’s lineup.
Even if it’s only with numbing consistency, devoid of flash.
‘I was patient waiting for my pitch there and understanding that let the game come to me, try and make solid contact, don’t need a home run, don’t need to try to hit a ball 500 feet,’ Raleigh told reporters in Seattle, matter-of-fact per usual. ‘Just do something good and adrenaline will usually take over in those moments.’
John Schneider: A Little problem
The manager of the Toronto Blue Jays got to his post and kept it thanks to a resolute mentality and steady demeanor, through parts of four seasons that have featured both playoff highs and dispiriting underperformance.
But it always comes down to pushing buttons, and while the living was easy when the Blue Jays pounded out 29 hits in winning Games 3 and 4, their Game 1 and Game 5 losses came about when a fellow named Brendon Little had the ball in his hands.
He’s a decent lefty reliever, a little better than your itinerant situational guy but also not the sort to blow your doors off. The man had 30 holds and a 3.03 ERA. He also walked nearly six batters per nine innings.
About that…
Schneider called on Little to preserve a 2-1 eighth-inning lead, Raleigh at the plate, the thinking that maybe forcing Big Dumper to bat right-handed the first time in the series might serve as Kryptonite.
One swing and 348 feet later, tie game.
Oh, but Little had to face two more batters. Befitting his season-long track record, he walked both of them.
Little threw 15 pitches. Ten were balls, and another landed in the front row of the left field seats.
That left Seranthony Dominguez to come on and try to clean up a two-on, no-out mess, Seattle ready to burst. He grazed Randy Arozarena with a pitch to load the bases and then there he was: Suárez, with nowhere to put him.
Sure, the players executed, but Schneider’s maneuvers set the events in motion.
‘I get it, man,’ he said in his postgame news conference. ‘After that, you got to settle down and throw strikes, too. It’s hard. No one feels worse than Little, no one feels worse than (Dominguez) right now.
‘Or me.’