For the first time since 2001, the Seattle Mariners are headed to the American League Championship Series. Seattle became the third team to advance to the league championship round on either side of the bracket on Friday by defeating the Detroit Tigers, 3-2, in a wild, eventful Game 5 of the AL Division Series that required 15 innings. It was the longest winner-take-all game in MLB playoff history.
The Mariners will now face the Toronto Blue Jays, who defeated the New York Yankees on Wednesday to advance. That series will begin on Sunday.
While the Mariners are one of five teams to have never won a World Series -- the others being the San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Brewers, Colorado Rockies, and Tampa Bay Rays -- they stand out from the pack by virtue of being the only MLB club to have never even participated in one. That despite coming into existence in 1977, or decades before some of those other clubs. (The Rays, for instance, began play with the 1998 season.)
But that conversation is for another time. Below, CBS Sports has recapped five of the biggest plays that determined the Game 5 marathon.
5. Garver hits sacrifice fly to give SEA lead in the second
Let's start, where else, with the first run of the game. Josh Naylor doubled off Tarik Skubal, the AL's likely repeat Cy Young Award winner, using an excuse-me swing in the bottom of the second inning. Naylor then stole third base, singlehandedly putting himself in position to score on a Mitch Garver fly out to center field. Just like that, the Mariners had a 1-0 advantage.
It would remain that way until ….
4. Carpenter homers to give the Tigers the lead
The play itself is almost as important as what happened prior. Javier Báez doubled to begin the sixth inning, prompting Seattle manager Dan Wilson to lift starter George Kirby in favor of left-handed reliever Gabe Speier.
Wilson's intent was to gain the platoon advantage over Carpenter, who had a tremendous game but also possesses a career .606 OPS versus lefties. On paper, it made plenty of sense. On the diamond, Carpenter unloaded and put Detroit ahead.
3. Rivas ties game for the M's in the seventh
Speaking of managerial maneuvering that didn't work out as desired. Tigers skipper A.J. Hinch removed Skubal to begin the seventh. In came righty reliever Kyle Finnegan. Finnegan walked Jorge Polanco and surrendered a single to Naylor, putting two on with two outs in the inning.
From there, Hinch and Wilson engaged in a chess match. Wilson lifted the aforementioned Garver in favor of lefty-swinging Dominic Canzone. Hinch countered by inserting lefty Tyler Holton. Yet Wilson parried by turning to Leo Rivas, a switch-hitter batting right-handed. Rivas smoked a ball to left field, tying the game at 2-2 and erasing whatever consternation the sixth inning created.
2. McKinstry thrown out at home in 12th
There's a tendency in pieces like this one to overindex on plays that result in runs. Don't overlook the plays that don't. Goodness knows there were a lot of them on Friday night. One particular incident stuck out to us, that being in the 12th inning, when Báez came to bat with runners at second and third and one out.
Báez hit a ball to Seattle third baseman Eugenio Suárez, who fired to catcher Dillon Dingler in ample time for Dingler to tag out Zach McKinstry, the baserunner who had been off on contact. The Mariners made it look easy, but you can understand why the Tigers ran the contact play in that situation. The reward was simply too high, elevating the break-even point to a threshold where, well, the Tigers would be kind of silly to not have it in motion.
If the Mariners had botched the play in some shape or another -- be it if the fielding, the throwing, or the tagging -- the Tigers would've looked like savvy risk-takers. As Thursday's game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies showed, you cannot assume that a play will be made. Alas, the Mariners were up for the task on Friday, and so the Tigers instead looked a little silly, albeit understandably so.
1. Polanco wins game in the 15th
Of course we have to round out this list with the play that closed out the game.
The Tigers were on their eighth pitcher of the night, and it was clear that right-hander Tommy Kahnle didn't have his best stuff. He recorded just one out, gave up two hits, hit a batter, and issued an intentional walk. One of those hits came on a payoff pitch to Polanco. He cashed in:
It was a fitting conclusion, because it was Polanco who had homered twice in Game 2 (Skubal's other start) to lift the Mariners to victory. Series wins are bigger than any one player, but Polanco did a great job of making himself into an unlikely hero by helping the Mariners do the unthinkable: winning both of Skubal's starts.
In turn, Seattle now has a chance to check off another seeming impossible: advance to the franchise's first ever World Series.
