Eugenio Suárez hits two home runs in Game 5 to beat Mariners and take a 3-2 ALCS lead
The Mariners and Blue Jays entered Game 5 of the American League Championship Series knowing that a five-hour flight was in their future. What they don’t know is which team will happily fly from Seattle to Toronto and which team will have a torturous time in the air. It took me a long time to figure it out. It wasn’t until the eighth inning that Seattle third baseman Eugenio Suarez finally decided to take matters into his own hands. With a two-homer, five-RBI performance, including a go-ahead grand slam in the decisive inning, Suarez helped the Mariners win 6-2. They now lead the series 3-2, leaving them with just one victory in their first World Series appearance in franchise history. No doubt they’ll sleep soundly as they fly to Toronto for Game 6 on Sunday.
Both managers will be looking to mix things up on Friday. Toronto’s John Schneider mentioned in both his pregame and postgame press conferences that he hopes to avoid the familiarity penalty by making sure his relievers don’t face the same hitters over and over again. Dan Wilson, on the other hand, reshuffled his lineup with the goal of “breaking it up and creating different looks.” He pushed Julio Rodriguez into the lead, pushed struggling Randy Arozarena into fifth, kept Carl Rowley in the two holes, and pushed Jorge Polanco and Josh Naylor into third and fourth. Suarez, like Arozarena, struggled in the postseason, batting just .162, but still ranked sixth.
Friday’s game featured a rematch of Game 1 pitches between Kevin Gausman and Bryce Miller, with both starters allowing just three earned runs in a combined 11 2/3 innings. They allowed even fewer runs on Friday. Their two approaches could not be different. Gaussman avoided the upper part of the area at all costs, hoping to provoke a pursuit of the splitters that dived beneath the area and win an attack on the four-seamer controlling the aircraft. Miller threw some splits of his own, but he attacked with his fastball at the top and above the zone. He also gave up pitching. With ace Bryan Woo in the bullpen preparing to pitch for the first time since Sept. 19 due to chest inflammation, Miller emptied his tank. The average velocity of his two fastballs is about 2 mph higher than his regular season average. The starters picked up where they left off in Game 1, each facing four batters in the first inning and throwing doubles to the opposing lineup’s biggest stars. Miller reached 98 mph, struck out two and allowed a double to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., while Gausman rode his signature splitter and gave up a double of his own to Raleigh.
Suarez made his first contribution in the second inning when Gausman’s game plan faltered and he started missing high spots. With one out, Gausman hit a four-seam ball up the middle of the third baseman. It was the highest pitch he had thrown in the game, and Suarez didn’t miss it, turning and firing the ball 396 feet into the left-center bullpen. There is no doubt that the Mariners lead 1-0.
Gausman then settled down, allowing just one hit and one walk over the next three innings. Miller, on the other hand, keeps getting into trouble. The Blue Jays hit two pitches at just under 100 mph in Game 3 and ended up with nothing. Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a double down the line, but when Andrés Giménez hit his line drive straight to first baseman Naylor, Naylor quickly fired to the second baseman before Kiner-Falefa came back.
Miller was even luckier in the fourth. Nathan Lukes opened the inning with a double down the first base line, and the Mariners intentionally walked the red-hot Guerrero. As has happened many times in the postseason, a batter who came on after an intentional walk also earned an unintentional walk of his own, loading the bases with no outs. After Miller struck out Dalton Varshaw, the Blue Jays had the right man in their corner. Most balls in play score, and contact specialist Ernie Clement is next.
Clement found himself well ahead of the first scorer, but as always, he managed to hold his own long enough to make contact. He reached out and touched the top of the ball with the end of his bat. The ball fell directly into the dirt, leaving a huge impact crater and kicking up a lot of dirt. There it sat, inches from home plate. Rowley swooped in, and with his knee already at the plate for the out, he simply stood up to lead off the inning-ending double play.
With Wu waiting in the bullpen, the fifth inning will likely be Miller’s last anyway. But the game ended prematurely when the leadoff batter struck out for the third time in a row. After Addison Barger’s single to center, Wilson walked to the mound and handed the ball to Matt Brash. The move was unsuccessful. Brush induced a flyout from Keena Falefa and then a swinging bunt from Jimenez advanced Barger to second. With two outs, George Springer jumped on a slider in the outer half and hit a resounding double to left-center to tie the game. The game belonged to Miller, who ended his night with four innings, one earned run, four hits, two walks and four strikeouts. Brash loaded the bases again, then struck out Guerrero to end the threat. The Blue Jays tied the score at 1-1.
The crowd roared as flames shot into the sky from either side of the bullpen door, and Wu jogged onto the field to pitch the sixth inning. The Blue Jays gave him a much colder greeting. Alejandro Kirk jumped on John Woo’s first pitch and hit the ball into the right field gap for a double. It was the fourth consecutive inning in which the Blue Jays led by a hit. With one out, Clement singled to right field, and Kirk — the 11th slowest baserunner in the game who hadn’t scored on a second single all season — showed no hesitation. It was a risky send, but third base coach Carlos Fabres has clearly done his homework. Kirk could have made a nice throw, but Dominic Canzone’s pitch landed 20 feet above the third base line. As the ball came in, Kirk quickly passed Rowley. He scored easily, and Fables rushed down the baseline with him. The Blue Jays lead 2-1.
Schneider pulled Gausman with two outs in the sixth, his third straight start in exactly 5 2/3 innings. He ended his night with one earned run, three hits, three walks and four strikeouts. He now has a 2.12 ERA in three postseason starts.
For a while, it looked like the Blue Jays would hold on to a one-point lead, making it three straight wins in Seattle. A few close calls came close to changing the score. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Canzone sliced a fly ball a foot beyond Luis Wallander’s left-field foul pole. Gabe Speier went scoreless in the eighth thanks to Arozarena’s leaping catch on a Clement fly ball that might have slipped over the left field fence.
Suarez finally broke the situation in the eighth inning. Rowley started off, and Schneider kept his word, keeping him on his toes with a new look, bringing in left-hander Brendon Little and converting the switch-hitter to right-handed hitting for the first time in the Series. It doesn’t matter. No one wants to face Raleigh from either side of the plate. Slightly behind, 2-0. “I was just looking for something in the middle of the plate,” Rowley said after the game. Little complied, throwing a fastball over center and watching Rowley launch the ball almost straight up at 108.6 mph. The Moonshot’s launch angle was 43 degrees, just enough to clear the left field fence and Myles Straw’s outstretched glove. The game ended in a 2-2 tie.
There was little further resolution as Polanco and Naylor both walked the Mariners’ first and second with no outs. With the game in the balance, Schneider can’t wait to see if the fourth batter Little faces will be the first one he retires. The head coach brought in Serantoni Dominguez. “Randy! Randy!” the crowd cheered. Dominguez trailed 2-0 when Arozarena hit a hard fastball and scored. The crowd roared louder, and Domingos got too inside, hitting a fastball that caught Arozarena in the elbow. The Mariners loaded the bases with no outs. It’s a tough situation for a pitcher with the seventh-highest walk rate in baseball.
Suarez hit a home run earlier in the game and hit 49 long balls in the regular season. All the Mariners needed was a fly ball. “I told myself, don’t let the fastball beat you,” Suarez said after the game. He didn’t. He hit a 2-2 fastball to right field for a grand slam and a 6-2 Mariners lead. By the time Dominguez mercifully finished his third show, Fox Broadcasting finally used the Pearl Jam music it had been saving all series from.
Closer Andres Munoz scored a quick win in the top of the ninth inning, and the series will return to Toronto, where the Jays will play in front of their hometown fans with their backs against the wall. In addition to losing the game, the Blue Jays may have also lost Springer, who suffered a horrific injury in the seventh inning. Wu’s sinker absolutely took off, trailing Springer horribly and hitting him directly in the knee. The sound was sickening, and a subsequent broadcast said Statcast initially interpreted Carrom as a 55-mph hit. After the game, Schneider reported that the X-ray results were negative. “George is as tough as they come,” he said. “I think he would have to be very, very injured to be out of the lineup on Sunday.”
Game 6 will feature each team’s second game starter, Logan Gilbert of the Mariners and rookie Trey Jesavage of the Blue Jays. Leading 3-2, and with two of those three wins coming in Toronto, the Mariners have a clear advantage, but the fact is, the series has been very close. The Blue Jays led 27-25, beating the Mariners in hits but no home runs, and with home field advantage, they were certainly not out. Publicly at least, Schneider and his players have made it clear they’re content with taking two of three games in Seattle. “I would say we’re in a good spot,” Clement said. “We have a chance. That’s all we need.”
