TORONTO — Dan Wilson was between the white lines the last two times the Seattle Mariners came this close to the World Series, a catcher on the teams that lost to the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. He swung a bat and handled a pitching staff and ostensibly had a chance to affect the outcome.
Yet nothing he did on the field in that situation torched the Mariners’ World Series dreams like his maneuvers as their manager in Game 7 of this ALCS.
Sure, George Springer won this ALCS with a stunning, three-run go-ahead home run in the bottom of the seventh inning, giving the Blue Jays a 4-3 victory that sent them to the World Series to take on the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Yet it was Wilson who received an excellent start from George Kirby, who got home runs from Julio Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh to take a 3-1 lead, who had one of the best closers in the game, Andres Muñoz, fully rested and geared up for a multi-inning appearance.
And somehow, he blew it all.
Wilson yanked Kirby after four innings, got a solid two innings from starter-turned-reliever Bryan Woo, and then, when Woo allowed the first two runners in the seventh to reach base, made one of the most questionable pitching changes in recent major league history.
Jogging through the bullpen gate, the season hanging by a thread, the tying runs in scoring position, wasn’t Muñoz. It was Eduard Bazardo, a well-regarded set-up man – yet a guy who’d pitched two innings the night before.
He’d also appeared in eight of the Mariners’ 11 postseason games heading into Game 7.
‘He’s pitched a lot,’ Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman said of Bazardo. ‘I think he pitched in just about every game this postseason for them. He’s had an unbelievable postseason.
Yet on this night, he hung a sinker right in the middle of the plate to the wrong guy. Springer lashed it for a go-ahead three-run homer, the 23rd of his storied postseason career.
Season over. World Series, snatched away. And a winter’s worth of second-guessing for the manager who just completed his first full season.
‘It’s very mixed. Disappointed, obviously. Frustrated,’ Wilson said of the atmosphere in the Seattle clubhouse.
It could have worked out even worse. Due to the three-batter minimum, Bazardo was guaranteed to face Springer, Nathan Lukes and, if a man reached, ALCS MVP Vladimir Guerrero. In short, a pitcher not on full rest asked to take down the heart of the lineup with a World Series trip on the line.
Heck, had he gone to Muñoz, it’s possible Springer and Guerrero and Co. wouldn’t have seen another plate appearance the rest of the night. Blue Jays manager John Schneider says in discussing the situation with bench coach Don Mattingly and hitting coach DeMarlo Hale, he was expecting Wilson to intentionally walk Springer and bring in lefty Gabe Speier.
‘I actually thought he was gonna bring in Speier, walk George and make me pinch-hit for Lukey,’ says Schneider.
‘I loved that he left the bat in his hands.’
And a winter’s worth of regret begins right now for Seattle.
‘I love every guy in this room but ultimately, it’s not what we wanted,’ Raleigh said after Game 7. ‘I hate to use the word failure, but it’s a failure. What we expected was to get to the World Series and win the World Series.’
