TORONTO — The idea, on the surface, was preposterous. Wacky, really.
Here were the Seattle Mariners, after two decades of frustration, of near misses and never-had-a-chances, trying to close out one of the most improbable postseason comebacks in Major League Baseball history, in a hostile environment on the road, and they’re turning the ninth inning over to a rookie pitcher who has never thrown a professional pitch in relief?
What?
“That,” Mariners pitching coach Pete Woodworth admitted later, “was not really part of the plan.”
And yet they were eager to give the ball to George Kirby. They were giddy, really.
Wild-card series game 2:
Mariners 10, Blue jays 9
Kirby, the Mariners’ rookie right-hander, showed why in the bottom of the ninth inning, earning his first save in his first postseason game Saturday night by closing out the Mariners’ 10-9 series-clinching victory over the Blue Jays in the American League Wild Card series before a sold-out crowd at the Rogers Centre.
“The blood was flowing,” Kirby said, describing his jog out from the right-field bullpen in the bottom of the ninth. “I probably could’ve hit 105 (mph). I felt really good.”
Rewind a couple days.
Before the series, Woodworth and manager Scott Servais met with the coaching staff to discuss options and scenarios with their relief pitchers. The Mariners had one of the best bullpens in baseball in the second half of the season, and here they were adding another elite arm in Kirby, who had been terrific as a starter in the second half of the season but wasn’t going to start in the three-game wild-card series.
What, they asked themselves, would be the best way to utilize Kirby out of the bullpen?
“George was this wild card, ace-in-the-hole,” Woodworth said.
But, no, they never realistically planned to use him as a closer, and certainly not in a series-clinching scenario with a one-run lead.
And yet that’s where they found themselves Saturday night. And Woodworth said there was no hesitation calling on Kirby in that situation.
“You have George Kirby standing down there,” Woodworth said, beer running down from his head in a celebratory clubhouse. “You have 98 (mph) with two fastballs, two breaking balls. You have George Kirby. So it really was an easy decision. It just wasn’t something we’d planned on doing.”
Kirby’s last relief appearance of any kind came in 2018, when he was pitching for the (get this) the Harwich (Massachusetts) Mariners.
“Just to pitch in a postseason game was freaking awesome,” Kirby said. “Whatever Skip (Scott Servais) wants to do with me, I believe in him. And I’m just glad he believed in me.”
Kirby, for the record, did not hit 105, but he did top out at 99 mph — after averaging 95.2 on his four-seam fastball during the regular season.
He got Teoscar Hernandez to ground out to J.P. Crawford for the first out — an important first out after Hernandez had homered twice earlier in the game.
After surrendering a rare walk to Matt Chapman, Kirby struck out Danny Jansen looking at a slider, and then ended it when Raimel Tapai lined out to Julio Rodriguez in center field.
The Mariners used eight pitchers in all, and their 23-year-old flamethrower, Andres Munoz, came out of the bullpen for the second night in a row. After the Mariners had tied the score at 9-9 in the top of the eighth, Munoz pitched a scoreless inning in the bottom of the eighth, and he earned the victory after Adam Frazier drove in Cal Raleigh for the winning run in the top of the ninth.
Munoz has been the Mariners’ best reliever all season, and he came through again in the biggest moment Friday.
“He is the ultimate reliever, because anytime you put him in the game, you are 100% confident the score will stay there,” Woodworth said. “That’s such a huge weapon to have.”