The Dodgers’ NLCS sweep of the Brewers means there will be no more days with multiple baseball games until the spring. But the one baseball game on Sunday is more than enough, to say the least. It will feature either the Blue Jays forcing a Game 7 or the Mariners reaching their first World Series in franchise history.
Throughout this postseason, I’ll be previewing the next day’s action, game by game. Here’s a look at three storylines for Sunday’s ALCS Game 6.
This is a lot to ask of Yesavage
There isn’t a person involved with the Blue Jays who doesn’t attest to Yesavage possessing maturity that goes beyond his years. Kevin Gausman, Max Scherzer, manager John Schneider, they all rave about the kid. “You kind of lose sight of the fact that he’s 22,” Schneider said.
But the thing is: He is 22. And he’s not just 22: He’s a 22-year-old who has only pitched in five Major League Baseball games in his entire life. Five! Now, two of those games have been in the postseason, but it should be said that only one of them went well. We all remember that dominant start against the Yankees in the ALDS, but the Mariners knocked him around pretty good in Game 2 of this series, tagging him for five runs in four innings of a 10-3 Seattle win.
And now the sixth game of his MLB career is, basically, the most important Blue Jays game in more than 30 years. The Jays have Chris Bassitt, Eric Lauer and potentially Braydon Fisher available if Yesavage struggles early … but if he struggles early, at that point, it might be too late. Of course, if he does what he did against the Yankees … he’ll be a Canadian legend.
For all the big hitters in the Blue Jays lineup — including the injured Bo Bichette, who has yet to play this postseason — the best hitter they had during the regular season was Springer. He has carried that over into the postseason, putting up a .933 OPS, which shouldn’t be a surprise: There’s no hitter in either lineup with more October experience.
But the sight of Springer taking a fastball off his knee in Game 5 was a little terrifying; the sound alone made you double over. He left the game — after being booed by some of the Seattle fans in attendance, much to the irritation of Schneider — right before the Mariners made their wild, riotous eighth-inning comeback. Schneider is confident Springer will be OK for Game 6 — “George is about as tough as they come,” he said. “I think he’ll have to really, really be hurting to not be in the lineup on Sunday” — but that looked extremely painful.
Suffice it to say, this Blue Jays lineup can’t afford to lose Springer, or even have him playing at significantly less than 100 percent. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is on an all-time heater, but the Mariners have already started walking him any time he can do any real damage. It’s just a lousy time to have a player as important as Springer compromised in any way.
Can the Mariners meet the moment?
This here, right now, is the closest the Mariners have ever come to a World Series. This is their fourth trip to the ALCS, and none of the first three saw them win more than two games (which they did in both 1995 and 2000). In their most recent trip (2001), a team that won a record 116 games during the regular season was bounced in an emotionally devastating five-game series. After that, it was another 21 years before Seattle made it back to the playoffs at all.
The Mariners should not be deluded by their victories in Games 1 and 2 at Rogers Centre. This crowd is going to be losing its collective mind from first pitch on Sunday, as we have long gotten accustomed to from Toronto fans. (And Seattle fans, of course.) Toronto has been waiting a long time for a trip back to the World Series, after all.
But even with all that: Everything is lining up for the Mariners. They’ve had this incredible season, highlighted by Cal Raleigh making history seemingly every time he came to the plate. They have a rotation that’s lined up well and is already a team strength. They’ve got a lineup that, thanks to Eugenio Suárez’s resurgence of late, looks deeper than it has since the Trade Deadline. And they’ve got the aura of a team that may, at last, be having its moment in the sun.
This is not to say that the Mariners advancing is a lock, that they’ve punched their ticket, that anything has been settled at all. It’s just to say that if they fall short now, after all this, it will be the most heartbreaking thing to happen to a franchise and a fanbase that has had its heart broken many, many times. The Mariners are just one game away from uncharted territory — from the promised land. Now they just have to get that one … last … win.
