Once, long ago, the Mariners came home from a best-of-five playoff series down two-games-to-none and needing a miracle.
They got it.
It might seem foolish to pin your hopes on a 27-year-old precedent, but it also seems fitting. The Seattle franchise has always clung possessively to the magic of 1995, so why not one more time, when they need it the most?
ALDS Game 2:
Astros 4, Mariners 2
Just like in 1995, when the Mariners were riding the euphoria of the first playoff appearance in their history, it will be a frenzied, pumped-to-the-gills crowd — riding the euphoria of the Mariners’ first home playoff appearance in 21 years — trying to will them to victory Saturday in Game 3 of the American League Division Series.
And it will take another miracle. The Mariners absorbed two agonizing losses in Houston, squandering a lead with two outs in the ninth in the first one, and then blowing a lead in the sixth inning in the second one.
In 1995, the Mariners dropped two games at Yankee Stadium that had their own heartbreak quotient. Returning to the Kingdome, they swept three games, including the legendary Game 5 walkoff in the 11th inning on Edgar Martinez’s double that turned a 5-4 deficit into a 6-5 series-clinching win.
Here are a couple ways in which the path of the 2022 Mariners diverges significantly, however. The ’95 Mariners had their ace, Randy Johnson, going in Game 3. The Mariners burned their ace, Luis Castillo in Game 2. He pitched superbly but couldn’t handle the otherworldly Yordan Alvarez, who has lifted the Astros to victory with late go-ahead homers in each game.
The 1995 Yankees, while possessing the roots of a budding dynasty that would win four World Series titles between 1996 and 2000 (and just miss a fifth championship in 2001 when Mariano Rivera couldn’t hold a ninth-inning lead in Game 7 of the World Series), were nevertheless playoff rookies, just like the Mariners. Hard to believe now, when they’re virtually an annual postseason participant, but it was their first appearance since 1981. These Astros are seasoned postseason performers, having won the World Series in 2017 and earned American League pennants in 2019 and 2021. They have made it as far as the ALCS for five consecutive seasons — a streak the Mariners still hope to break.
Also, the format has changed since 1995, and Game 5 will be played in Houston, not Seattle. But if the Mariners force the series back to Minute Maid Park for a winner-take-all game Monday, it means they will have won two in a row at home and successfully shaken off the residual shock and deflation of having two possible wins snatched from them.
The Mariners believe the spirit and energy of the crowd at T-Mobile Park will be their secret weapon. It will, however, be effective only if they find a way to neutralize Alvarez and cash in on scoring opportunities that eluded them in Houston despite constant traffic on the bases.
The Mariners saw firsthand in Toronto what can happen when an invested, roaring crowd gets deflated by an early deficit. In Game 1 the M’s jumped immediately ahead of the Blue Jays with three in the top of the first and effectively muted the fan frenzy the rest of the afternoon.
“I do know how hard it is to win on the road, and it will be very hard for them to win in Seattle. I will tell you that,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said after Thursday’s 4-2 loss. “Because I know what it’s going to be like when our crowd gets going on Saturday afternoon.”
Catcher Cal Raleigh said the Mariners are “going to come back Saturday with some vengeance, and we’ll be ready to go.”
Certainly, Houston manager Dusty Baker knows how hard it is to close out a five-game series, even after winning the first two games. When he was managing the Reds in 2012, they took the first two from the Giants — in San Francisco, no less — only to watch the Giants sweep the next three in Cincinnati to take the NL Division Series en route to the second of their three World Series titles in the 2010s.
“I mean, that third win is always the toughest, because I’ve been in this situation a couple times,” Baker said. “So you try to get it over with as soon as you can so that they don’t have much life after that third game.
“But it’s going to be tough. I mean, their fans, I’ve got people in Seattle. It’s going to be sold out. First time in 20 years. They’re scalping tickets and all kind of stuff up there. So it’s going to be loud. Seattle’s a good place to visit.”
For the Mariners, it would also be a good place to leave, because that would signify that they extended the series back to Houston. It’s going to be an arduous task. That would require beating Astros starter Lance McCullers, a longtime nemesis (2.80 ERA vs. Seattle in 18 starts) and seasoned postseason performer (2.83 ERA in 16 games), on Saturday and getting the better of future Hall of Famer and soon-to-be Cy Young Award winner (for the third time) Justin Verlander on Sunday. The Mariners peppered Verlander on Tuesday in the series opener and knocked him out of the game after four innings. One suspects he’ll make it much more difficult on them if there’s a next time.
On the other hand, the Mariners know how close they are to being tied in this series, or even ahead 2-0. They won 14 in a row this year to send them on the drought-breaking path, and certainly believe they have a three-game winning streak in them. The Mariners hope to ride the wave of energy from a playoff-starved fan base Saturday to get them started in that direction.
“Now we’re going to go home and keep playing the same good baseball that we’ve been playing, and I think it’s going to be a different story out there,” rookie star Julio Rodriguez said after Thursday’s game.
“We expect it to be like it was here [in Houston] except they’re cheering for us,” second baseman Adam Frazier added. “Seattle’s waited a long time for this. All the fans, I think they’re champing at the bit for us to get back there.”
Frazier expressed the prevailing opinion among Seattle players that the gap between the Mariners and Houston is not nearly as vast as the 16-game difference in the AL West standings, the 12-7 Houston advantage in the 19 regular-season games between the two teams, and the 2-0 Astros lead in the Division Series might indicate.
“We played with these guys all year. It’s [19] games, so it’s not like they just beat our ass every game,” Frazier said.
“We know they’re a good team. We’re a good team. If we weren’t, we wouldn’t be standing here today. … They’re baseball players, too and it’s a streaky game. Hopefully we can get their middle of lineup out in Seattle and we’ll be fine. It’s not us versus an All-World team. They’re a good team. We’re a good team. We’ve got to play good baseball. We can win the game just as easy as they can.”
Now the Mariners have to win Saturday if they want to give their fans a second chance to push them to another miracle.