George Springer is about to demolish Bryce Miller’s first pitch of ALCS Game One. It was the only score Miller would allow over six otherwise spotless innings on short enough rest. (Fox Sports television capture.)
At the split second George Springer’s bat connected with Bryce Miller’s first pitch of this year’s American League Championship Series, you could be forgiven if you heard Mariners fans groaning. When the ball banged the Canada Dry sign above the right center field bullpen, you might have heard the groaning turn to moaning.
One pitch, one swing, the 21st postseason bomb of Springer’s career, and only the third leadoff bomb in League Championship Series history since pitch counting began in 1988, according to The Athletic‘s Jayson Stark. Just like that, the Blue Jays took a lead.
And Springer’s opposite-field smash on a fastball away, sending him past Hall of Famer Derek Jeter for fifth place on the all-time postseason bomb list, wasn’t the only reason Mariners fans groaned and moaned.
In the top of that first inning, they groaned, moaned, and fumed when the Mariners didn’t call for a review of that play at the plate on which Cal Raleigh (one-out hit, advancing to third on followup hit) was tagged out when it appeared he’d managed to get his foot on the plate through the legs of Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk. But television replays showed Raleigh’s foot landed a second or two after Kirk tagged his torso.
Were the Mariners unduly alarmed after Springer sprang?
Not after Miller wriggled out of further trouble in the form of a pair of walks courtesy of inducing a pair of line drive outs and a short fly out.
Not after Miller matched Jays starter Kevin Gausman point for point, dollar for dollar, from that point forward, until Raleigh atoned for missing the first inning score by squaring Gausman up, with two out in the top of the sixth, and driving a 2-2 service a little further than Springer’s traveled, about five rows up into the bleachers above that bullpen.
Not after Jays manager John Schneider decided that a followup walk to Julio Rodriguez should be he end of Gausman’s evening before he might incur jn any further damage. That came soon enough when Gausman’s relief Brendon Little wild-pitched Rodriguez to second and surrendered Jorge Polanco’s sharp opposite-field line RBI single to left to crack the one-all tie.
Not after Randy Arozarena wrung a leadoff walk out of Jays reliever Seranthony Dominguez in the top of the eighth, stole second and third while Raleigh suffered a called strikeout, then—after another walk to Rodriguez—came home on another Polanco steak, this time a spanker bouncing three times through the infield and a few more into right.
“I just choked up and wasn’t trying to do too much,” said Raleigh postgame about his bullpen-clearing blast. “I was just trying to get bat on ball and really put something in play, maybe find a hole. I didn’t want to punch out again.” He didn’t seem to mind putting that ball out of reach, out of play, and out of sight, either.
Raleigh is about to smoke Gausman’s splitter for a trip above the right field bullpen . . .
Aside from all that, it was Miller time. For a guy pitching on three days’ rest for the first time in his major league life. For six inning of one-run, two-hit baseball that including getting rid of seventeen of his final nineteen batters. He needed a little comfort from Raleigh at the mound while navigating his way out of that first-inning fire, but that was enough.
Miller went two innings longer than Mariners manager Dan Wilson expected him to go on short rest, only nobody told Miller until he was done for the night.
“They didn’t tell me anything, any plan,” said the lad who threw 27 pitches in the first inning and 49 the rest of his outing. “So I was going out there just letting it rip until they came out and got me.”
“That was incredible from him,” said Mariners reliever Matt Brash (now, there’s a classic name for a relief pitcher), who was one of three Mariners bullpen bulls along with Gabe Speier and Andres Munoz to pitch perfect innings once Miller’s time expired for the evening. Thus the 3-1 Mariners win Sunday night.
“I knew this was the biggest start of my career so far,” said Miller, whom one report revealed stood in Rogers Centre’s center field’s farthest location from the plate staring that direction to help focus, “and I just wanted to get out there and mentally kind of get in a zone and visualize having success on the mound.”
Miller’s season wasn’t always so simple. After a 2.94 ERA in 2004, he ran into elbow inflammation twice and an inflated ERA. He didn’t find himself on his horse fully until some time in August. Then he gave hints of his postseason potential in ALDS Game Four, pitching 4.1 shutout innings against the Tigers.
Remember: These Blue Jays are the ones who demolished the Yankees 34 runs worth in their American League division series and made the Bronx Bombers resemble the Bronx Broken. The Mariners got rid of 23 of the final 24 Jays hitters while they were at it. All of a sudden the Joltin’ Jays didn’t look all that intimidating despite Springer’s first-pitch flog.
Remember, too: These Mariners played fifteen innings Saturday to come out of their ALDS alive and reasonably well and leaving the Tigers for dead. They had to fly cross country and into Canada and endure a four-hour departure delay when mechanical issues forced their airline to get another plane up to Seattle from Los Angeles. They didn’t even have time for a Rogers Centre workout before ALCS Game One.
I’m not sure I’d recommend this as a continuous practise, but it seems as though now and then a team that should have been suffering exhaustion can turn one of the league’s howitzer corps to one side for one night. Now we’ll get to see if the Mariners can manhandle the Jays on a proper night’s sleep and with a proper pre-game workout.
We may even get to see Miller on the mound in a game that would mean the pennant for the Mariners if they win. The lad’s already proving that unthinkable isn’t necessarily impossible.
Throneberry Fields Forever 