TORONTO — In the midst of the Mariners’ midseason 14-game winning streak, Adam Frazier was trying to balance the frustration of his inconsistencies at the plate and the beautiful chaos that the team was unleashing on the rest of the league.
The two feelings were so different for him. His struggles and inconsistency at the plate were different from his past seasons. But the feeling of playing for something more than the day’s game and his own stats was so gratifying.
“This is the first time I’ve won since college,” said Frazier, a proud of alum of baseball powerhouse Mississippi State. “When I was with the Pirates, we never won, and even when I was traded to San Diego (2021), we faded down the stretch. This is different than anything I’ve experienced in my baseball career.”
Fast forward to Saturday night at the Rogers Centre.
Wild-card series game 2:
Mariners 10, Blue jays 9
Frazier delivered one of the biggest hits of the Mariners magical season, lacing a double into the right-field corner to score Cal Raleigh for the game-winning run in Seattle’s stunning 10-9 come-from-behind victory.
“This is what it’s all about,” he said as beer was being dumped on his head by teammates. “I’m so happy Jerry (Dipoto) and Justin (Hollander) brought me over here. This group of guys is so special.”
Moved up in the lineup because of his past success against Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman, in his first at-bat, his hard line drive to left field was snared by Toronto shortstop Bo Bichette in a ridiculous leaping grab. Undeterred, Frazier notched Seattle’s first hit off Gausman, leading off the fifth inning. He later scored on Jarred Kelenic’s sac fly.
He finished the night with three hits and scoring two runs.
“I had a good feeling about Frazier and that’s why we slid him up in the lineup,” Servais said. “It paid dividends. He was awesome tonight.”
Admittedly, Frazier hasn’t been awesome this season compared to his past performances and his own standards. Coming into this season, he had a career .281/.344/.412 slash line over six MLB seasons. A year ago, he had a .324/.388/.448 slash line with the Pirates, earning a spot on the NL All-Star team. The Padres later outbid the Mariners to acquire him in a trade.
Seattle acquired him this past offseason to serve as the everyday second baseman, but he struggled to find consistency — posting a .238/.301/.311 slash line with 22 doubles, four triples, three homers and 42 RBI. It’s a less than ideal performance going into his free agency year.
And yet …
“It’s been a tough year personally, but this has been the most fun I’ve ever had playing baseball,” he said with beer dripping off his face. “This is what you play baseball for. To be with guys like this.”
Blue Jays’ George Springer carted off
On what ended up being J.P. Crawford’s most important hit as a Mariner, there was a scary moment in shallow center field with the Blue Jays’ George Springer collided with shortstop Bo Bichette attempted to catch the pop up off Crawford’s bat.
The ball fell in for a hit, resulting in a three-run double for Crawford and the Mariners that tied the score at 9-9.
Springer stayed down, flat on his back on the turf, for several minutes, after his head appeared to collide with Bichette’s arm. Springer was eventually carted off the field.
As he was being carted off, Springer waved his arms to let the Rogers Centre crowd know he was OK.
Toronto manager John Schneider said after the game that Springer was being evaluated by team doctors.
Now we’ve got bad blood
Julio Rodriguez was hit twice by pitches in Game 1 on Saturday night.
Toronto’s George Springer was hit in the hand later in Game 1.
Two more Blue Jays hitters, Teoscar Hernandez and Whit Merrifield, were hit by pitches in the fifth inning of Game 2 on Saturday.
In a scary incident, Merrifield was hit in the head on the first pitch — an 89 mph slider — thrown by Mariners reliever Diego Castillo. None of them, logically, seemed intentional, given the stakes of a playoff series, but the Blue Jays were clearly not happy with Mariners pitchers.
Merrifield tossed his bat toward the home dugout in frustration, and Toronto manager John Schneider immediately sprinted out of the dugout to check on his player and talk to home plate umpire.
After the inning, cameras captured Merrifield in the home dugout pointing and cursing in the direction of the Mariners dugout.
And Merrifield ended up being pulled from the game the next inning.
But cooler heads would prevail, and there were no more incidents after that.