October 8 is the Greatest Date in Seattle Mariners History
The Gathering Storm
27 years after their first playoff series win, on October 8, 2022, the Seattle Mariners played what might go down as the second-greatest game in Seattle baseball history.
Seattle found themselves down 8-1. That deficit was due to Robbie Ray‘s inability to keep Toescar Hernandez in the yard and an uncharacteristically awful appearance by Paul Sewald, who walked multiple batters, gave up extra-base hits, and hit a batter to score a run.
Teoscar Hernandez going yard AGAIN
pic.twitter.com/E1Ra1KHSxc— Bet The Bases (@betthebases) October 8, 2022
Diego Castillo came in to finish off the bottom of the fifth inning. He started by knocking Merrifield literally out of the game, hitting him on the head before getting Espinal to ground out.
Building Tension
If you were to hop on Social Media, you’d find that there were several dozen posts about fans giving up on this game. It was to be expected after EVERYONE told Mariners’ supporters that their team couldn’t keep up.
They should have kept the faith instead. In the top of the sixth inning, a little magic happened.
After three straight singles by All-Star Ty France, Mariners’ home run leader Eugenio Suarez, and the Emerald City’s newest hero, Cal RaleighM’s fans began to think something could happen. Then Mitch Haniger struck out, and Adam Frazier popped out to first base.
Oddly, Blue Jays Manage John Schneider, changed pitchers to turn Carlos Santana around to his better batting side. A wild pitch scored France. On the next pitch, Santana deposited a fastball into the stands, closing the gap to 3 runs.
https://twitter.com/4_bagger_blast/status/1578877035664982017
Darkest before the Dawn
In the bottom of the sixth, M’s Manager Scott Servais brought in reliever Matt Festa who delivered a quick three up, three down inning. After the Mariners failed to do anything in the top of the seventh inning, Festa came back out.
He gave up a hit to Alejandro Kirk before getting Toescar Hernandez to ground into a force out. Servais pulled Festa for Penn Murfee. Unfortunately, Murfee wasn’t up to par. He gave up back-to-back singles to plate a run, extending Toronto’s lead to 9-5.
Danny Jansen drives in a big run to answer the Mariners rally pic.twitter.com/nglwZIgiMA
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) October 8, 2022