2 moves stand out from Seattle Mariners' Game 7 loss

The Seattle Mariners were nine outs away from their first-ever trip to the World Series.

But in the blink of an eye, it all slipped away.

Heartbreak: Seattle Mariners sunk by Blue Jays in ALCS Game 7

After Seattle took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning, Toronto Blue Jays slugger George Springer blasted a go-ahead, three-run homer off reliever Eduard Bazardo that proved to be the deciding blow in the Mariners’ gut-wrenching 4-3 loss in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series on Monday night.

That fateful seventh inning is destined to haunt the M’s and their long-suffering fanbase for a long time. And as is the case with most nail-biting October losses, the pitching decisions will be heavily analyzed and debated.

That was what MLB Network’s Jon Morosi focused on during his postgame reaction video for Seattle Sports, which can be viewed above in its entirety.

“This Game 7 was in the Mariners’ grasp (with) nine outs to go,” Morosi said. “And when we look back on this one, we’ll probably think about two decisions: Removing George Kirby after four innings, and then extending Bryan Woo beyond two innings.”

Kirby got the start for Seattle and tossed four innings of one-run ball, allowing four hits and one walk on 65 pitches.

With it being an all-hands-on-deck situation, Mariners manager Dan Wilson then went to the bullpen, where he had a unique weapon in All-Star Bryan Woo. Woo was the team’s best starting pitcher this season, but he took on a bullpen role for the ALCS after dealing with pectoral inflammation that sidelined him for the final week of the regular season and the AL Division Series.

Woo began by throwing a pair of scoreless frames, working around a leadoff walk in the fifth and a one-out single in the sixth. By that point, he’d thrown 28 pitches. That was exactly how many he’d thrown in his two-inning relief stint back in Game 5, which was his first time pitching in four weeks.

Wilson’s decision to send Woo back out for the seventh backfired, as the 25-year-old issued a leadoff walk to Addison Barger on five pitches and then gave up a single to Isiah Kiner-Falefa. No. 9 hitter Andrés Giménez then followed with a sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third.

Wilson then went to Bazardo, who was a breakthrough success story and a trusted reliever for the M’s this season. But on his second pitch of the night, Bazardo left a 1-0 sinker over the inside part of the plate and Springer turned on it for the pennant-deciding blast.

“The thought I had was that after Woo completed the sixth, we might see the bullpen get involved to begin the seventh, (with) perhaps two innings being the limit of Woo,” Morosi said. “But you understand why Dan Wilson stuck with Woo. He had been their best pitcher for most of the season.

“But it seemed as though with his current range right now, perhaps Woo was a bit overextended. The command wasn’t quite there.”

Morosi then explained the argument for letting Kirby pitch the fifth inning and how that could have changed the calculus for Woo and the rest of the bullpen.

“Kirby’s fastball command, I thought, was much improved from where it had been earlier on in this series,” Morosi said. “Perhaps if they had gone with one extra inning from Kirby, then you could have gotten the two innings from Woo. That would have brought you through the seventh, and then you would have been able to potentially go right to (closer Andrés) Muñoz and skip over Bazardo.”

2 moves stand out from Seattle Mariners’ Game 7 loss

Tags: