American League Division Series, Game 1
RHP Logan Gilbert (13-6, 3.20 ERA) vs. RHP Justin Verlander (18-4, 1.75)
12:37 p.m. | Minute Maid Park | Houston
TV: TBS | Radio: 710 AM
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MLB postseason
Mariners advance to ALDS
The first player to speak up this morning at the Mariners’ pregame hitters meeting was this 21-year-old rookie. Everyone in the room, Scott Servais said, stopped and listened. pic.twitter.com/xQ2x8dKYiC
— Adam Jude (@A_Jude) October 11, 2022
Scott Servais says he’s prepared to use George Kirby in any situation out of the bullpen. He didn’t say it, but no one has ruled out Kirby starting Game 3 in Seattle on Saturday. M’s will wait to announce Game 3 starter. pic.twitter.com/xjiqb5TgfC
— Adam Jude (@A_Jude) October 11, 2022
Mariners fans celebrated the wild comeback win in Toronto everywhere — including on the job
Christian Umagat and his co-workers at Toyota of Seattle are die-hard Mariners fans, and after their reaction to the team’s dramatic 10-9 comeback victory on Saturday over the Toronto Blue Jays to clinch a spot in the ALDS, the world is taking notice.
On Monday morning, local sports fan Alex Akita, whose father also works at the dealership, tweeted out security cam footage of Umagat, along with co-workers Ian Douglas, Eddie Flores, and Cory Phillips celebrating the game’s final out after the Blue Jays’ Raimel Tapia flew out to Mariners’ center fielder Julio Rodriguez to end it.
In the video, Umagat, Douglas, and Flores leap in the air and cheer with excitement in the lobby of the dealership’s service department, before linking arms and joyfully emulating the Mariners’ famous post-victory dance. After a few seconds, Phillips skips into frame from over in the sales department, and joins in the fun.
Can Julio Rodriguez repeat May magic against Astros’ Justin Verlander in ALDS?
HOUSTON — There have been so many memorable moments for Julio Rodriguez this season that it’s difficult to single out only one.
But here’s one, in the context of Tuesday’s Game 1 of the American League Division Series, that is particularly notable.
Of course, Rodriguez said Monday, he remembers fondly the home run he hit against Houston’s Justin Verlander on May 27. It happened at T-Mobile Park on the first pitch the Mariners’ rookie center fielder saw from Verlander that day, a 95 mph fastball at the top of the zone.
Rodriguez barreled it 101 mph off the bat, 359 feet over the wall in right field, a two-run shot in the bottom of the first inning in what turned out to be the worst start of Verlander’s remarkable 2022 season.
What happened next was just as memorable for Rodriguez.
After he was able to retrieve the home-run ball, Rodriguez had a clubhouse attendant take it over to the visitors’ clubhouse a day or two later with a special request for Houston’s ace. Could you please sign this for Julio?
Verlander obliged and inscribed a congratulatory note on the home run. His closing line, “Hopefully it’s the last one off me.”
Analysis: Breaking down the ALDS between the Mariners and Astros
HOUSTON — Breaking down the position matchups in the American League Division Series between the Mariners and Astros, which starts Tuesday in Houston.
Position-by-position comparison
First base
Ty France
After a blazing start to the season — a .316/.390/.476 slash line his first 70 games — that saw him make the AL All-Star team, France cooled off significantly, dropping his overall numbers to .276/.340/.437 with 27 doubles, 20 homers and 84 RBI in 140 games this season. He’s slowly finding his approach, which is key for Seattle.
Yuli Gurriel
After posting a .319/.383/.462 slash line with 31 doubles, 15 homers and 81 RBI in 2021, the 38-year-old started showing signs of his age this season. Gurriel slumped to a .242/.288/.360 slash line with 40 doubles, eight homers and 53 RBI. After winning a Gold Glove in 2021, he’s still a high-level defensive first baseman.
Edge: Seattle
Mariners and Astros don’t like each other. Now they’ll play for a spot in the ALCS
TORONTO — After colorfully lauding his Mariners for their resiliency and their ability to rally from a seven-run deficit in Saturday’s preposterous 10-9 win over the Blue Jays, and just before Champagne would explode all over the visitors’ clubhouse of the Rogers Centre to celebrate a wild-card series victory, manager Scott Servais briefly mentioned the road ahead.
“Next stop, y’all know where we are going,” he said. “It ain’t going to be easy.”
Notice, he didn’t say who they were playing.
As a few grumbled and booed at the thought their upcoming opponent, others screamed, “We got it!”
After they turned out the lights in Toronto when the party was over, the Mariners began thinking about the upcoming American League Division Series against their American League West nemesis — the Houston Astros.
It had to be this way.
For the Mariners to truly become the organization they aspire to be in terms of consistency in success and reputation, unseating the Astros, a team they dislike to the point of loathing, by either beating them out of the American League West title or bouncing them from the postseason, is a necessary rite of passage.
Mariners’ Logan Gilbert embraces ALDS matchup with Astros’ Justin Verlander
HOUSTON — Scott Servais’ eyes weren’t on the field where the celebration was taking place but in the stands where the future awaited.
The Mariners manager had just watched his team win via a walkoff home run in June 2018, then turned his attention to a young Logan Gilbert, who was sitting with the fans near Seattle’s dugout.
The M’s had selected the right-handed pitcher 14th overall in the MLB draft a few days earlier. And as players basked in the moment, Servais communicated to Gilbert that his moment would come — telling the then-21-year-old (with some hand signals), “You will be out here in two years.”
“I knew he had to be a dude for us to ever get here,” said Servais, whose team will play Game 1 of its American League Division Series vs. the Houston Astros on Tuesday. “So why not start in that moment?”
Logan Gilbert is a dude. He’s a goatee-sporting, barefoot-walking, trinket-toting, meditating dude who can throw a fastball in the high 90s and make hitters second-guess their line of work with his secondary pitches. His 3.20 ERA this season was 10th-best in the AL, and he lowered that mark substantially by posting a 2.00 ERA over 36 innings in September.
On Tuesday, the second-year player will start against Astros ace Justin Verlander — the overwhelming favorite to win the AL Cy Young Award — in hopes of pouring more pixie dust on this enchanted Mariners season. Oddsmakers are anticipating a Houston win, but did they take into account that Gilbert has been anticipating this day his whole life?
Seattle Times sports staff