SEATTLE — Mariners manager Dan Wilson saw the same movie unfolding in front of him for the second straight night, but on Thursday, he couldn’t change the ending in Seattle’s 8-2 loss to the Blue Jays.
The third inning of Game 4 of the American League Championship Series began nearly exactly as the third frame of Game 3 had: Leadoff double, Andrés Giménez home run, George Springer out, Nathan Lukes hit, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit, Alejandro Kirk walk.
At that point Wednesday night, Wilson stuck with George Kirby, who allowed three more runs to score in the frame, then surrendered two more home runs before his rough outing finally ended. Thursday, Wilson went with the short leash, pulling Luis Castillo after just 2 1/3 innings following the Kirk walk, giving the ball to Gabe Speier with the bases loaded and one out.
Wilson’s mound visit with Castillo was an extended one, before the right-hander patted his skipper on the chest and gave him the ball. Castillo, who took the loss with three runs, five hits and a walk on his final line, did not speak to the media after the game.
“Just [told him] that we were going to go to Gabe in that situation,” Wilson said. “It was tough. Again, it’s a tough decision and it was not an easy one and not an easy one to tell him. But that’s what we went with … just an opportunity to let him know.”
The opposite move ended up having largely the same result, though. Speier walked Daulton Varsho to bring in a run before he could get out of the inning. Toronto tacked on two runs in the fourth inning, with Guerrero adding a solo home run in the seventh.
Seattle’s bats quieted after Josh Naylor’s solo home run in the second off Max Scherzer, who then locked in for yet another signature outing in what almost certainly will be a career that ends in Cooperstown.
Sometimes, a different route leads you to the same place.
“We know about this offense,” Wilson said. “They struck quickly and, again, it just felt like it was a situation where we knew we could be aggressive, and tonight was an opportunity to do that with Gabe there and we went with it.”
It was a setup reminiscent of what Wilson and the Mariners faced in Games 1 and 2 of the ALDS with their approach to Detroit’s Kerry Carpenter. In the first game of the series, Kirby looked solid through four innings, before Carpenter tagged him for a go-ahead two-run home run — with Speier ready and waiting in the bullpen — in what ended up being a Seattle loss.
The next night, Castillo faced nearly the exact same situation: Four good innings, followed by traffic in the fifth that brought Carpenter to the plate with two outs. This time, Wilson went to Speier; the left-hander struck Carpenter out and the Mariners went on to win and even the series.
Wednesday, Speier got up in the bullpen when Kirby ran into trouble, but never entered the game, Wilson opting instead for Carlos Vargas in relief of Kirby. When the game got out of hand, he moved on from Vargas to give the ball to Caleb Ferguson and Luke Jackson, so all four of his high-leverage arms came into Thursday on at least three days’ rest.
“We were told to be ready early,” Speier said. “It’s postseason baseball, you’ve got to be ready at all times. Obviously it was early, but I wouldn’t say I was caught off-guard by any means.”
Wilson, who in his first full season at the helm became just the third Mariners manager to lead the club to the postseason, is getting his first dose of playoff baseball as a skipper. One of the defining themes of his 2025 season has been patience — and since Seattle revamped its lineup after the Trade Deadline, Wilson has more or less stuck with the same order, letting just about every hitter work his way out of individual slumps in the past 10 weeks.
He’s used the same five starters in 48 of the past 49 games. He’s stuck with his relievers in roughly the same roles all year.
The margins are thinner in the postseason, though, and Wilson has managed as such. Thursday, for the first time in the playoffs, he changed his lineup for a reason other than the opposing starter’s handedness, bringing in Leo Rivas, moving Jorge Polanco to designated hitter and sitting Victor Robles. Rivas ended up going 0-for-2, but his out on the bases — getting picked off after a leadoff walk in the bottom of the third — was one of the miscues that kept the Mariners from regaining any semblance of momentum.
The pitching decisions follow the same storyline: In a second straight flat showing, there were no obvious switches to Wilson to flip. All five of the hits Castillo allowed were on strikes, four were on pitches over the heart of the plate and he only generated five whiffs, tied for his fewest in a start since May 3. The bullpen, which allowed one earned run in 19 innings from Game 5 of the ALDS through the first two games of the ALCS, has given up 10 in the past two nights.
“I’d say it comes down to that we need to pitch a little bit better,” Speier said. “Continue to attack, but maybe a little bit more intent with what we’re doing. Nothing really changes. This is who we are, and we’re going to continue to play this way.”
