The Mariners punched their ticket to the franchise’s first ALCS appearance since 2001 with a thrilling 15-inning victory in the winner-take-all Game 5 of the ALDS against the Tigers on Friday night. It was Seattle’s Jorge Polanco who ended the epic battle with a bases-loaded walk-off single in the bottom of the 15th inning, sending T-Mobile Park into a frenzy and the Mariners into an ALCS showdown with the Blue Jays.
Along the way, there was no shortage of impressive feats, contributions from players across both rosters and moments that baseball fans will remember for years to come. With this in mind, here’s everything you need to know from the Mariners-Tigers ALDS Game 5 thriller.
ALDS Game 5, by the numbers
Polanco plays hero after 15 innings
After an incredible back-and-forth battle between the Mariners and Tigers, it was Polanco who ended it with an RBI single with the bases loaded in the 15th inning. It marked just the 15th walk-off hit in a winner-take-all game in MLB postseason history and the first since Chris Taylor’s walk-off home run for the Dodgers against the Cardinals in the 2021 NL Wild Card Game.
That’s not all, though. This was just the second such walk-off hit in a winner-take-all ALDS game. The other one? Edgar Martinez’s walk-off RBI double against the Yankees in the 1995 ALDS against the Yankees, a moment so important in Seattle history that it’s simply referred to as “The Double.”
That game also went extras — a mere 11 innings. The Mariners are now one of two franchises with multiple extra-inning walk-off wins in winner-take-all postseason games, joining the Twins/Senators. Friday’s 15-inning win against the Tigers was also the longest winner-take-all game and tied for the fourth-longest series-clinching win in postseason history.
Skubal’s dominant performance
Considering the game lasted 15 innings, it might’ve been easy to forget that Tarik Skubal thoroughly dominated earlier in the game. And boy, was it an all-time performance from the Tigers’ ace, who struck out 13 batters in six innings of one-run ball in his second start of the series.
Having struck out 14 in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series against the Guardians, Skubal became the first pitcher in postseason history with multiple 13-plus strikeout games in a single postseason. The only other pitchers with two such postseason outings in a career are Gerrit Cole and Bob Gibson.
Skubal, however, set not one, but two strikeout records in this performance. Beginning with his punchout on Victor Robles for the final out of the second inning and bookended with his strikeout of Eugenio Suárez in the fourth, Skubal struck out seven Mariners in a row to set the postseason record for consecutive strikeouts in a game.
Skubal also had four strikeouts of 100-plus mph, bringing his postseason total to seven, the most in a single postseason by a starting pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008). The only pitcher with more 100-plus mph strikeouts in a postseason is Aroldis Chapman, who had 15 in 2016 and 11 in ‘17.
Carpenter is going to give Mariners fans nightmares for a long time. While Skubal was his usual incredible self, Carpenter put himself in rarified air with four hits, two walks and a home run in his six plate appearances.
After singling in his first two plate appearances, Carpenter smashed a go-ahead two-run home run in the sixth inning off Mariners left-hander Gabe Speier. It was only the third home run of the season against a left-hander for Carpenter, who has predominantly been a platoon hitter against right-handed pitching in his career.
After the home run, he added another single and a pair of walks. Carpenter became the third player to reach base six times in a playoff game, joining Kenny Lofton (1995 World Series Game 3) and Stan Hack (1945 World Series Game 6).
The Mariners trailed 2-1 with two runners on base and two outs in the seventh inning — their season down its final seven outs — when an unlikely source came up huge. As part of some managerial maneuvering, switch-hitter Leo Rivas (pinch-hitting for Dominic Canzone, who was pinch-hitting for Mitch Garver) came to the plate against lefty reliever Tyler Holton. He lined a game-tying single to left field, setting up the Mariners for their victory eight innings later.
Rivas became only the seventh player in postseason history to record a game-tying hit as a pinch-hitter in a winner-take-all game, and the first since Kiké Hernández for the Dodgers in Game 7 of the 2020 NLCS. Not only that, but Rivas also turned 28 on Friday, joining the Braves’ Francisco Cabrera (1993 NLCS Game 4) and the White Sox’s Swede Risberg (1917 World Series Game 5) as the only players to notch a pinch hit on their birthday during the postseason.
Prior to that at-bat, Rivas had just 39 big league hits and 17 RBIs, none in October. He had played in 776 Minor League games, just to get to this moment.
It’s no wonder that in a win-or-go-home Game 5 that went 15 innings, both teams felt compelled to dip not only deep into their bullpens, but also into their regular starting rotations. The Mariners used both Game 3 starter Logan Gilbert and Game 2 starter Luis Castillo in relief, while the Tigers turned to their Game 3 starter, Jack Flaherty. All three got the job done, combining for 5 1/3 scoreless innings (all in extras), while Castillo earned the victory.
Coming out of the bullpen was simply rare for Flaherty — he had seven previous MLB relief appearances, including one in the postseason — but the same could not be said for the Mariners’ duo.
Gilbert had zero relief outings out of 148 previous big league appearances, playoffs included. He had never relieved as a Minor Leaguer, either. The last time he did it? As a Stetson University sophomore in 2017. Castillo, meanwhile, had made all 247 of his MLB appearances as a starter. His most recent relief appearance came in High-A ball in 2016, when he was still a member of the Marlins organization.
All told, the teams used five accomplished starters in the game: George Kirby, Gilbert and Castillo for the Mariners, plus Skubal and Flaherty for the Tigers. That quartet includes four All-Stars and five pitchers who have received Cy Young Award votes, including 2024 AL winner Skubal.
Then there’s Troy Melton, a Tigers rookie who both started and relieved this year. He started Game 1 for the Tigers and then added a scoreless relief inning in Game 5, bringing the total to four pitchers who appeared out of the bullpen on Friday after starting a game earlier in the series.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that had not happened in the postseason since Game 7 of the 1952 World Series, when the Yankees (Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi) beat the Dodgers (Preacher Roe, Carl Erskine).
