Wild-card series Game 2 (M’s lead 1-0)
1:07 p.m. | Rogers Centre | Toronto
TV: ESPN | Radio: 710 AM
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Wild card series Game 1:
Mariners 4, Blue Jays 0
Mariners’ Robbie Ray ready for Game 2 start in his return to Toronto
TORONTO — The symmetry is too sweet to ignore.
Robbie Ray is back in Toronto to pitch against the Blue Jays in the playoffs Saturday, a year after turning his career around in a dominant season pitching for the Blue Jays.
He does not anticipate a warm reception from the rowdy fans at the Rogers Centre.
“I think you just have to control your emotions,” said Ray, the Mariners’ veteran left-hander who is scheduled to start Game 2 of the three-game American League Wild Card Series at the Rogers Centre. “Not let the situation get too big. Not let the crowd control how you’re feeling about the game. It’s obviously going to be very loud here. The roof is closed. They’re going to be packed out. The fans here are loud. They love baseball.
“… For me, it’s just understanding that we’re still playing baseball, and we just have to continue to play the way that we have that has gotten us here.”
Mariners quiet down Blue Jays fans in a hurry with big first inning
TORONTO — The Mariners knew what they were up against coming here. They get a sense of it every time the Blue Jays visit Seattle and all those neighbors from British Columbia take over T-Mobile Park, irritating everyone with their loud chants and their good manners.
Those fans weren’t so nice to the Mariners before Game 1.
Boos rained down when the Mariners were introduced during a pregame ceremony Friday afternoon with the roof closed at Rogers Centre, a sold-out crowd of 47,402 making its presence known.
“It was so cool — one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had playing baseball,” Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford said of the pregame vibe ahead of his first playoff game. “The atmosphere in here was great. You live for that.”
The crowd noise reached a crescendo almost immediately after the game started. Blue Jays ace Alek Manoah got ahead of Julio Rodriguez 0-2, and the crowd rose to its feet.
“An electric atmosphere,” Rodriguez said later.
But it would turn quiet soon. Very quiet.
Mariners shut out Blue Jays in Game 1 of wild card behind Luis Castillo’s stellar outing
TORONTO — After striking out the side in the seventh inning in his seemingly effortless fashion, whipping triple-digit fastballs with terrifying movement past hitters, freezing them with knee-buckling sliders and mixing in a few shake-your-head changeups just because he could, Luis Castillo flashed a grin, removing his hat and offering his trademark fist pump that looks like a celebratory uppercut.
This is why the Mariners made acquiring the 29-year-old right-hander their priority at the Major League Baseball trade deadline — this setting, this moment, this performance.
Always at ease on the mound regardless of the situation, Castillo delivered the best postseason pitching performance in Mariners team history. And this is an organization that had Randy Johnson.
Castillo became the first Mariners pitcher to toss seven-plus shutout innings in a postseason game, dominating and demoralizing a stacked Blue Jays lineup in the process, while leading the Mariners to a stunning 4-0 victory Friday in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series.
Seattle Times sports staff